More good news

Yesterday, I posted about an internal DSCC poll showing James Webb with a four point lead over George Allen. Today, we got an independent poll supporting those numbers. A new Opinion Research poll of likely voters shows Webb up 50% to 46% with 4% undecided. Rasmussen has Webb up 51% to 46%.

I am trying very hard not to get overconfident about these numbers. The GOP get out the vote operation is legendary and Allen still has seven days to close, but having Webb at 50% or better is excellent news. It may just be that the Commonwealth has had enough of Allen and his Bush sycophancy. Perish the thought…

Not a good way to start the day

So, I just sat down to my usual breakfast of a bowl of Cheerios. It wasn't until I took a big mouthful that I realized my milk had gone bad.

Worst. Breakfast. Ever.

Happy Halloween

Thing I learned from NPR today:

The stem on a pumpkin is called a peduncle.

Have a safe holiday everybody.

The flight of the Pink Flamingos

The factory that produces the original pink flamingo, quite possibly the tackiest object in the known universe, is going out of business. I don’t know if this is a good thing or not…

Backfiring – yeah maybe

So just after I write a long post about the Virginia Senate campaign, Kos posts about an internal poll from the DSCC showing Webb with the lead and speculates that the dirty book strategy may have backfired on Allen.

Allen (R) 38 with leaners: 43
Webb (D) 43 with leaners: 47

This is an internal and I have seen nothing to corroborate, so take it for however many grains of salt you wish.

In addition, he also mentions that the Webb campaign will counterattack by demanding that Allen open his sealed arrest records from 1974. That is just awesome. With eight days left, Allen’s arrest record is the very last thing he is going to want to talk about. Nice move by the Webb team. Steve Jarding, Webb’s manager, is just brilliant, with a tongue as sharp as a tack. Have a look at this well executed verbal beating he gives Mary Matalin - outstanding.

Cue Allen bitching about the “politics of personal destruction” and “why can’t we focus on the issues”.

Now that is some good campaigning

The drama that is Katherine Harris’s bid to win the Bill Nelson’s Florida Senate seat hit yet another bump in the road. Her stunning incompetence as a candidate coupled with her wingnutty bashing of all things non-Christian has wrought a rather shocking development. From the Palm Beach Post:

There are 22 daily newspapers in Florida.

All 22 have endorsed Bill Nelson for re-election to the U.S. Senate.

That has to be some kind of record. Nelson is going to crush Harris like a bug. Such a perfect way to end the political career of the woman that helped steal Florida in 2000.

FWIW- It is probably wrong of me to say this but I have seen less face paint on clowns.

(Hat tip to the Political Wire)

Desperation

The Allen campaign, just days after whining about nasty, personal tone of the race and pleading to “get back to the issues”, fired off a salvo of attacks against Jim Webb’s writing. Allen cherry picked some sexual passages from Webb’s books, sent them off the Drudge Report, and questioned his moral fiber on that basis. Several of these books are held in such high regard that the Navy and Marines teach from them. A bitch move to be sure, but one very telling about Allen, who admitted that he had not even read the books.

Webb, to his credit, got pissed and fired back.

"The fish rots from the head down," Webb (D) said, referring to his belief that Allen (R) is responsible for his campaign staff's tactics and has now shown his true character. "Our government should no longer be in the hands of a group of unprincipled, small-minded, power-hungry character assassins."

[Snip]

The one-time boxer charged that Allen, the son of a former Washington Redskins head coach, has lived a life of privilege as a "a pampered public official." Allen, who did not serve in the military, was a college football player at the University of Virginia and spent one summer working on a ranch.

"When George Allen and his campaign take some small excerpts from my novels and not only criticizes them but uses them to question my ethics, my profession, my character, that is a line that should never be crossed," Webb said at Edgar Allen Poe Middle School in Annandale.

"I have lived in the real world, and I have reported the real world in my writings. I started working when I was 12 years old, and I fought in a brutal war. I saw its ugliness while George Allen was hanging out at a dude ranch," Webb said at a get-out-the-vote rally attended by about 300 people.

Too make things even more interesting, Webb drew the awful Lynne Cheney into the controversy by citing some explicit passages from her novel “Sisters”.

Speaking to Washington Post radio, Webb said, "I mean we can go and read Lynne Cheney's lesbian love scenes if you want to, you know, get graphic on stuff."

Cheney then told CNN, "Jim Webb is full of baloney. I have never written anything sexually explicit."

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sent out a news release listing sexual passages in books by Cheney and other GOP conservatives, including Dick Cheney's former chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Cheney went on Wolf Blitzer’s show yesterday, ostensibly to defend the Administration policy but got into it with the Beard over her own book. Wolf grilled Cheney for her statement that her novel had no sexual content when it clearly does and poor Lynne just melted down. It is rare to see an adult have a full blown hissy fit on national TV ("CAN"T WE TALK AOUT THE CHILDREN"S BOOK WOLF! - the CNN link above has the video) but it made for great entertainment. During the interview, one can actually see Cheney’s credibility get up and walk out of the studio. Good fun!

The bottom line here is that, despite all of his high minded rhetoric and good old boy charm, George Allen is just a spiteful, underhanded brat. He will lie about anything and smear anybody to keep his seat. That obvious lack of character, among other things, has pushed the Virginian Pilot, the Roanoke Time, the Washington Post, and the Daily Press to endorse Webb. Hell, even Fox News, the Republican house organ, has called out Allen for his dirty campaigning; a pretty tough trick for a conservative.

Virginia is ugly. This is one no-class campaign.

Reaching into the buckets of old trash, literally, the Allen campaign found excerpts from fiction Webb had written as a novelist and released it as...as what?

As an effort to discredit Jim Webb as the kind of person who would write man-boy fiction, which must be worse than the kind of person who would use the “n” word in real life or be embarrassed to be Jewish or call an Indian-American “maccaca,” all incidents along the troubled path of this year’s George Allen Senate campaign.

I pray to God that the Commonwealth will not re-elect this shameless, bigoted, liar. Vote Webb November 7th – Virginians deserve better.

"OVERPRICED SPACE-ROOMBA AWAITING MORE BULLSHIT ORDERS”

God, I love The Onion. This piece is just laugh out loud funny.

Mars Rover Beginning To Hate Mars
Unmanned Vehicle 'Bored Out Of Its Mind'

PASADENA, CA—NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists overseeing the ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission said Monday that the Spirit's latest transmissions could indicate a growing resentment of the Red Planet.

Spirit completes a diagram of an erect human penis on the planet's dusty surface.

"Spirit has been displaying some anomalous behavior," said Project Manager John Callas, who noted the rover's unsuccessful attempts to flip itself over and otherwise damage its scientific instruments. "And the thousand or so daily messages of 'STILL NO WATER' really point to a crisis of purpose."

Science is cool

A college in Vermont (of course) is using an innovative if somewhat old-school method for generating power: cow manure. Humans have been using dried cow patties as fuel for thousands of years but this is the first story I have seen about its use in larger scale power production. The cow power initiative hopes to reduce the college’s carbon emissions by 3500 metric tons a year. And while this is not going to save the planet, it is great to see people coming up with new ideas to address the problem.

Back in the saddle

As a huge Hokie fan, this season has, until last night, been a dreary and unsatisfying slog. Too much hype, embarrassing losses and some really trashy play; there has not been a lot for Hokie Nation to celebrate. That changed quite a bit with last night’s defeat of #10 Clemson.

Everyone that follows college football knows that Lane Stadium on a Thursday night is a very hard place to play. When Tech fields a defense that is clicking, look out. The place is as loud as other stadiums twice its size. And that is just what Clemson got. The noise rattled the visiting offense to the point that Clemson burned all three timeouts in the first 10 minutes, including one taken before the first snap. The defense just killed them, holding the #1 offense in college ball to 7 points. The offense took care of business as well. Branden Ore rushed for over 200 yards and 2 touchdowns. Sean Glennon only coughed the ball up once.

But most importantly, there were no personal fouls, cheap shots or any of the other crap that has characterized so much of the past couple of years. The team just came out, played together, played clean, and played Clemson off of the field. With a little help, Tech may also have played its way back into the Division title hunt. Hokie Nation finally has something to cheer about.

Getting what you deserve

Few things in this world are as gratifying as seeing a real jerk get his comeuppance. This is one of those moments – enjoy.

Welcome to the 12th Century

If I said something like this to my wife, I would never be heard from again.

SYDNEY, Australia - A senior Muslim cleric compared women who go without a head scarf to "uncovered meat" left out for scavengers, drawing widespread condemnation and calls Thursday for his resignation.

Sheik Taj Aldin al Hilali denied he was condoning rape when he made the comments in a sermon last month, and apologized to any women he had offended, saying they were free to dress as they wished.

Hilali was quoted in The Australian newspaper Thursday as saying in the sermon: "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside ... without cover, and the cats come to eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat's?"

Wow.

Basically, this guy is saying all men are latent rapists. If a woman gets raped, well, it is her fault for being too damn sexy. Sorry ladies, you have to wear a sheet so that guys will not be tempted. Not to mention that he straight up equated women to meat. That comment alone makes him the lead contender for the 2006 Caveman of the Year Award.

That said, I would pay serious money to see Hilali try this argument out at a NOW rally. The ensuing riot would be a hoot to watch.

MoDo is spot on

There are times when Maureen Dowd writes some of the most puerile, insipid crap one can find in a major news outlet. Other times, she hits the nail on the head. Today’s column is one of the latter as she takes the Administration to task for effort to “improve” the marketing of the war.

In a White House with a Fox News all-spin sensibility, officials don’t think they need to change the strategy as much as they need to change their slogan.

The overworked Bush phrase suggested “burying your head in the sand,” Steve Hinkson, political director at Luntz Research Companies, a G.O.P. public opinion firm, told The Washington Post’s Peter Baker. “The problem is that as the number of people who agree with remaining resolute dwindles, that sort of language doesn’t strike a chord as much as it once did.”

Unwilling to admit mistakes or face the urgent need to go past semantic changes in a protectorate that has fallen into a vicious civil war, in which Americans are merely referees and targets, the White House is falling back on marketing. Just as Andy Card rolled out the war as a marketing event, the Bush team now thinks that all it needs to do is come up with a catchy and chesty new advertising pitch.

Amen sister.

Getting worse

From the AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The number of American troops killed in Iraq in October reached the highest monthly total in a year Thursday after four Marines and a sailor died of wounds suffered while fighting in the same Sunni insurgent stronghold.

The U.S. military said 96 U.S. troops have died so far in October, the most in one month since October 2005, when the same number was killed.

You can call this many things, but winning is not one of them. It is a mystery to me that Rumsfeld still has a job.

Cut and run Republicans?

The clearest indicator that Iraq is a debacle and the GOP knows it came from Bill Frist today. The opening lines from this AP story speak volumes:

CONCORD, N.H. - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says if Republican candidates want to succeed on Election Day, they should turn their focus away from the Iraq war.

"The challenge is to get Americans to focus on pocketbook issues, and not on the Iraq and terror issue," Frist said in an interview with the Concord Monitor on Tuesday.

The Republicans are cutting and running from a policy position they own. They must know that not talking up the war gives aid and comfort to the terrorists. Does Bill Frist hate America?

Unhinged

Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-Wyoming) got rattled in a debate Tuesday with Democratic candidate Gary Trauner and Libertarian Thomas Rankin. Following the debate, Cubin, upset by comments Rankin made, threatened to slap him.

"My aide and I were packing up to leave the debate, and Barbara walked over to me and said, 'If you weren't sitting in that chair, I'd slap you across the face.' That's quote-unquote," Rankin said.

The kicker: Rankin has multiple sclerosis and is confined to a wheel chair. Classy.

Homeland security

One would think that in this day and age, classified nuclear documents would be secure enough not to end up in a meth lab. I am just saying…

Cosmetic eyelash transplants?

People are very, very strange. Eyelash hair plugs are the new botox.

The surgery is not for everyone. The transplanted eyelashes grow just like head hair and need to be trimmed regularly and sometimes curled. Very curly head hair makes for eyelashes with too much kink.

Too much kink. Indeed…

Lindsey Graham struck by blinding flash of the obvious

I think someone needs to get the new talking points. From the AP:

We're on the verge of chaos, and the current plan is not working," Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., said in an Associated Press interview. U.S. and Iraqi officials should be held accountable for the lack of progress, said Graham, a Republican who is a frequent critic of the administration's policies.

Asked who in particular should be held accountable — Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, perhaps, or the generals leading the war — Graham said: "All of them. It's their job to come up with a game plan" to end the violence.

Graham is a military guy, so I think he understands, all be it belatedly, just how bad things are and how incapable the current defense establishment is. Contrast that with what Bush and Tony Snow have ben saying.

Bush, in a CNBC interview, said, "Well, I've been talking about a change in tactics ever since I — ever since we went in, because the role of the commander in chief is to say to our generals, `You adjust to the enemy on the battlefield.'" conference.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said the United States would adjust its Iraq strategy but would not issue any ultimatums to the Iraqis. "Are there dramatic shifts in policy? The answer is no," Snow said Monday.

He acknowledged, however, that Bush no longer is saying that the United States will "stay the course" in Iraq.

"He stopped using it," Snow said of that phrase, adding that it left the impression that the administration was not adjusting its strategy to realities in Baghdad.

So, Republican lawmakers that whole-heartedly supported the invasion are having their “come to Jesus” moment and are looking for the Administration to do something concrete. The Administration, however, can’t dramatically change strategy as that would be tantamount to admitting that their plan is flawed. And as we all know, the Pope and George Bush are infallible. Instead, the Administration changes their language. The frame of “stay the course” versus “cut and run” has failed. They have no choice but to say that we are changing tactics, even though nothing is really going to change on the ground. Our Commander in Chief is clearly more interested in fighting the PR war than the actual shooting war. What a disgrace…

What Krugman says

I love Paul Krugman. He is one of the shining lights of the lefty pundit class. But unlike most of his brethren, he operates from Princeton, safely insulated from the ever present conventional wisdom of Washington D.C. For that reason, Krugman can say things that would get your average DC columnist tossed from the cocktail party circuit. Simply put, he does not care about conventional wisdom. He cares about facts. Yesterday’s column is a perfect example (hat tip to mparent7777).

Now that the Democrats are favored to capture at least one house of Congress, many people are urging them to walk and talk softly if they win. I hope the Democrats don’t follow this advice.

What the make-nice crowd wants most of all is for the Democrats to forswear any investigations into the origins of the Iraq war and the cronyism and corruption that undermined it. But it’s very much in the national interest to find out what led to the greatest strategic blunder in American history, so that it won’t happen again.

What’s more, the public wants to know. A large majority of Americans believe both that invading Iraq was a mistake, and that the Bush administration deliberately misled us into war. And according to the Newsweek poll, 58 percent of Americans believe that investigating contracting in Iraq isn’t just a good idea, but a high priority; 52 percent believe the same about investigating the origins of the war.

Why, then, should the Democrats hold back? Because, we’re told, the country needs less divisiveness. And I, too, would like to see a return to kinder, gentler politics. But that’s not something Democrats can achieve with a group hug and a chorus of “Kumbaya.”

[Snip]

The truth is that we won’t get a return to bipartisanship until or unless the G.O.P. decides that polarization doesn’t work as a political strategy. The last great era of bipartisanship began after the 1948 election, when Republicans, shocked by Harry Truman’s victory, decided to stop trying to undo the New Deal. And that example suggests that the best thing the Democrats can do, not just for their party and their country, but for the cause of bipartisanship, is what Truman did: stand up strongly for their principles.

Absolutely – go read the whole thing. If and when the good guys take back the House, they should give no quarter and show no mercy. We should go for the jugular and rebrand the current Republican leadership for what it is: corrupt, incompetent, and lacking compassion. Investigate Katrina, Iraq, and Cheney’s energy policy. Pass a minimum wage hike, lobby reform, and kill the oil company giveaways. Then watch the conservatives figure out how to vote against any of it. That would be good fun, no? What we do not want to do is fold for the sake of appearances. Too many times have the Democrats extended the olive branch only to have some Republican pitbull bite it off. When the majority party equates dissent with treason or questions the patriotism of war heroes for political expediency, fuck comity and the calls for bi-partisan civility. When Newt Gingrich strode the Capitol like a colossus, he devised a party strategy to demonize Democrats and liberals by constantly associating us and our ideas with words like sick, traitorous, decrepit, vile, weak, perverted, etc. – you get the general idea. That is right wing civility. It’s time we stand up and force them to change.

Science is cool

Two new claims of Star Trek science have made the news. First, Danish scientist have teleported both light and matter about a foot and half. Their efforts represent the first successful teleportation of a macroscopic object. Second, a team of US researchers have developed a cloaking mechanism that renders objects nearly invisible. While promising, neither technology has a practical application yet but this is still super cool.

Let's hope that phasers are just around the corner.

More Iraq

USA Today has a really insightful piece up today exploring the situation on the ground in Iraq and the Administration’s attempts to get a handle on it.

BAGHDAD — Before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, it was one of the nightmare scenarios: a slugfest in Iraq's capital, a sprawl of narrow streets, markets and blind alleys that is home to 6 million people.

More than three years later, the close-quarters fight the United States wanted to avoid is a reality. Rather than fighting Saddam Hussein's army, however, U.S. troops are caught in the crossfire alongside Iraqi forces as both try to take back the city from religion-based militias and death squads, as well as insurgents.

"This is the toughest thing I hope I ever do: fighting a counterinsurgency atop a sectarian conflict," said Col. James Pasquarette, commander of the Army's 1st Brigade Combat Team, positioned northwest of Baghdad.
[Snip]

Bush said the United States is constantly reassessing tactics but won't alter its objective of remaining in Iraq until the country has a stable government capable of maintaining its own security. "Our goal is victory," he said Saturday in his weekly radio address. "What is changing are the tactics we use to achieve that goal."

[Snip]

The loyalty and skills of the Iraqi forces in Baghdad vary. Some army units are dependable, but police, who often live in the areas they patrol, can be reluctant to take on local militias.
Getting local police to respond aggressively against militias has been a challenge, Pasquarette said. He has ordered that letters, in Arabic, be sent to every police officer and official in his area, warning: If you don't combat militias, you'll be fired. If you're found to be supporting them, you'll be detained.

[Snip]

"The civil war that everyone was afraid of is getting started," said Hammes, a retired Marine colonel.


In short, very little we have done so far has worked and we have blundered into a worst case scenario. If the Administration had any more cards to play, they would/should have already done so. Bush’s high profile strategy meeting this weekend was just for show; a lot sound and fury signifying nothing.

I do not believe for one minute there is some magical tactical change that can reverse the situation.

Highly Irregular

When was the last time the College Football AP poll had Clemson, BC, Georgia Tech, and Wake without having Miami or Florida State or Virginia Tech? This is a very weird year in the ACC.

The campaign to secure Baghdad has failed

From the New York Times:

In one of the most somber assessments of the war by American commanders, a statement read by the spokesman, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, said the campaign had been marked by increasing attacks on American troops and a spike in combat deaths. Attacks soared by 22 percent, he said, during the first three weeks of Ramadan, the holy month now nearing its end. With three new combat deaths announced on Thursday, the number of American troops who have lost their lives in October rose to 73, representing one of the sharpest surges in military casualties in the past two years.

General Caldwell said American troops were being forced to return to neighborhoods, like Dora in southwestern Baghdad, that they had sealed off and cleared as part of the security campaign because “extremists” fighting back had sent sectarian violence soaring there. The security plan sent heavy deployments of American troops into troubled neighborhoods, reversing the previous policy, which was to allow Iraqi troops to police the capital.

“The violence is indeed disheartening,” General Caldwell said. While the sweeps have contained violence in some areas, over all, he said, the campaign to gain control of the city “has not met our overall expectations of sustaining a reduction in the levels of violence.” As a result, he said, “We are working very closely with the government of Iraq to determine how to best refocus our efforts.”

I guess General Caldwell is just another liberal, cut and run defeatist that wants the terrorists to win. As Atrios would ask, why does General Caldwell hate America?

Yeah, that will work

Once again, shit so inane that one could not credibly make this up.

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma (AP) -- A candidate for state superintendent of schools said Thursday he wants thick used textbooks placed under every student's desk so they can use them for self-defense during school shootings.

"People might think it's kind of weird, crazy," said Republican Bill Crozier of Union City, Oklahoma, a teacher and former Air Force security officer. "It is a practical thing; it's something you can do. It might be a way to deflect those bullets until police go there."

I have a better idea. Until someone comes up with a permanent solution to this madness, let’s use superintendent candidates as shields instead. If they are anything like this guy, books are more valuable in comparison.

Imploding

The further disintegration of all things Republican continues apace today. There is a lot to talk about so let’s get started shall we.

Leading off, from behind the Orange Curtain, we have Mr. Tan D. Nguyen, Republican candidate against Dem Loretta Sanchez. Nguyen’s campaign got caught sending out potentially illegal and certainly nasty voter intimidation mail. The brave Mr. Nguyen claimed no knowledge and blamed a staffer. That appears to be bullshit as the County Republican Chairman, Scott Baugh, directly fingered the candidate.

"I learned information that allows me to draw the conclusion that not only was Mr. Nguyen's campaign involved in this, but that Mr. Nguyen was personally involved in expediting the mailer," Baugh said in a telephone interview.

Reaction to this underhanded move was general disgust. Arnold even called it a hate crime. The Orange County Republican Executive Committee voted unanimously to request Nguyen to withdraw from the race. Nguyen has thus far refused to drop out which you just have to love. Seriously, one of the most conservative places in the country has thrown its own candidate under the bus, for good reason mind you, and the candidate will not bow out. Trauma drama.

Next up, we go to Arizona, where Republican Rep. J.D. Hayworth is in a street fight with Democratic challenger Harry Mitchell. The polls are tied in a race that should have been a slam dunk for the incumbent. Instead, it is a dead heat. Hayworth, aside from being a windbag and party line tool, has gotten into a bit of hot water recently for expressing support for some of Henry Ford’s anti-semitic ideas and then refused to apologize after Jewish groups protested. Not smart for a guy representing Scottsdale, a place chockablock with transplant Jewish retirees. So he skipped out on a scheduled visit to a synagogue yesterday and sent a pair of dim-witted surrogates in his place. What follows next, I swear to God, could only happen in real life. If you wrote this a fiction, no one would believe it. From Wonkette:

Unable to defend his repeated praise of Henry Ford’s anti-Semitic “Americanization” program, U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth bailed on a scheduled campaign appearance Tuesday evening only to send in his place surrogates who repeatedly lectured the audience at Temple Beth Israel in Scottsdale and proclaimed that Hayworth “is a more observant Jew” (ed. – Hayworth is not Jewish) than those present.

The comment by Jonathan Tratt, a spokesman for the Hayworth campaign, drew loud and angry boos and caused nearly three-quarters of the crowd of more than 200 to walk out in disgust. After the walkout, another Hayworth surrogate, Irit Tratt, stood on the Temple’s bimah as she told members of the audience who gathered to ask questions, “No wonder there are anti-Semites.”

Way to go J. D.! You give amazing outreach. Next time, why not send someone dressed in an SS uniform or maybe a big white sheet? I will be stunned if this clown gets a single Jewish vote for the rest of his political career.

Moving on the Virginia, President Bush stumped for George Allen yesterday. Allen repaid the favor by stabbing the President in the back on Iraq. In a monumental flip-flop, the Senator finally dropped the ‘stay the course’ rhetoric and called for a new strategy. From the Pilot:

But in a two-week shift begun when U.S. Sen. John Warner returned from Iraq and gravely warned that the war is "simply drifting sideways," Allen has undertaken a not-so-subtle readjustment in rhetoric.

The new language was on display Wednesday in a speech notable for both its audience and its location.

"We cannot continue doing the same things and expect different results. We have to adapt our operations, adapt our tactics," Allen told the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, meeting in Lynchburg, the heartland of Virginia conservatism.

Usually, when politicians deliver a major pronouncement to a group with unrelated priorities, it's because there's no time to wait for a more appropriate invitation. The word needs to get out, pronto.

The snark level of the piece is pretty high all the way through but the finale really sticks it in and breaks it off.

Eleventh-hour conversions are better than none at all. But Virginians should ponder why it took Allen so long to recognize what Webb saw four years ago, and why this shift comes on the eve of a close election.

Well, this Virginian has pondered that question and the answer is simple. The war and Bush have tanked in the polls and Allen, like a rat abandoning a sinking ship, is trying to get a far away from the President and the issue as quickly as possible. But Allen is right in that we can't do the same things and expect a different result. That is why the citizens of the Commonwealth are going to, God willing, fire his ass on November 7th.


Finally, the Foley case has caused a bunch of staffers and leadership people to turn on each other. With that investigation in full swing, the story will be in the news through the election. Coupled with Iraq and the seemingly unending corruption scandals out there, the Republicans are swimming against a current of really bad news. Things have gotten so bad that the economic conservatives, the war hawks, and the evangelicals are at each others' throats, creating the proverbial circular firing squad (hat tip to AmericaBlog).

Unless something big happens, and I mean of Biblical proportions, the House will fall to the Democrats. When that happens, two words will be on the lips of every member in that Chamber: subpoena power. The wave of investigations into Iraq, energy policy, tax policy, Katrina, etc is going to bring the conservative agenda to a screeching halt. The President and his party will not know what hit them. As Scott Adams put it, we are about to witness a paradigm shifting without a clutch.

Cleaning house

November 7th has all of the earmarks of a 'thrown the bums out' election. The war, corruption and sex scandals, an unpopular President and a compliant Congress of the same party; people are pissed and want a measure of accountability. If these poll numbers hold, there are going to be a lot of new faces in the people’s House.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Half of all Americans believe most members of Congress are corrupt -- a figure that has risen 12 points since the start of the year -- and more than a third think their own representative is crooked, according to a new poll released Thursday by CNN.
According to the poll, a majority disapproves of how both parties are handling their jobs in Congress. Just 42 percent approve of how the Democrats are doing in Congress, while 54 percent disapprove. The GOP fares even worse -- only 36 percent approve of their performance in Congress, while 61 percent disapprove.

If you are the party in power, these numbers should scare the hell out of you. People are looking for a change and that means the Majority is going to take a serious hit.

Voter intimidation

The Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register are reporting that a mailing intended to intimidate Cali Hispanics has been linked to the campaign of Republican Tan D. Nguyen. The letter, in Spanish, threatened jail time if one is an immigrant and votes, even though naturalized citizens have the right.

These sorts of tactics crop up every election season but it is rare that a campaign gets caught. Rule number one in the Dirty Tricks manual is no fingerprints. Sending out missives of highly questionable legality via a commercial mailing service is a big old thumbprint on the gun barrel. Someone very stupid is working for Mr. Nguyen. Anyway, everyone is distancing themselves from these letters and threatening prosecution if laws were broken, etc. All of which is good, except for the fact that the damage may already be done and someone needs to be held accountable for it.

Now, I am no Nostradamus, but I think this may have set back Republican outreach efforts to Hispanics. Just a guess…

The Washington Post endorses Webb

The Post editorial board not only endorses Webb but calls out Allen for being an ineffective caveman.

THE U.S. SENATE race in Virginia pits a novice politician, Democrat James Webb , against a much more experienced one, incumbent Republican George Allen, who spent much of the early fall obliterating his reputation for amiable charm and political deftness. As Mr. Allen has partially admitted, his wounds in the close race have been mostly self-inflicted and have left a sour taste in the mouths of many Virginians. Still, there is an even better reason to vote against Mr. Allen: Quite simply, he is a mediocre senator whose six years of undistinguished service do not justify rehiring.

[Snip]

Many of the initiatives that Mr. Allen has undertaken in the Senate are the easy stuff -- relatively noncontroversial measures that lavish money and favors on his constituents. Nothing wrong with that, if it's part of a broader record of accomplishment. But while Mr. Allen has proposed some worthwhile bills -- for instance, to expand investment in nanotechnology and to help historically black colleges and universities upgrade their telecommunications infrastructure -- his legislative contributions have been marginal at best. He is no one's idea of a heavyweight in the Senate.

Virginians deserve better and more enlightened representation. Mr. Webb offers that hope [emphasis mine].

Ouch. I love the “more enlightened” bit. And the editorial is right about Allen's ineffectiveness; the biggest concern for the Commonwealth of late has been transportation. Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads are facing gridlock in the coming years and Allen has hardly been a champion for the state. As a matter of fact, transportation is something he talks about only after blathering on about more tax cuts, how great the war is going, or any of the social wedge issues that conservatives love to flog.

It is time to elect someone that actually believes government can solve problems rather than another wingnut convinced that government (and gays) are the root of all evil. Virginians do deserve better. The election is 19 days away.

The wussification of America’s kids marches on

Physical activity of almost any kind should be encouraged by every school in America. I am sure that everyone has seen some news of the epidemic obesity in kids nowadays. Too much junk food and sitting on the couch playing X Box has wrought a nation of pint sized fatties, fighting their way through Halo and a Cheetos bag with equal fervor. So anything that gets the kids moving is probably a good thing. I bring this up because some overzealous worrywarts in Boston have banned tag and touch football for fear that the kids are going to get hurt and sue the school. And it is not just Boston; several other schools have done the same. Getting bumps, scrapes, and the occasional broken arm are part of being a kid. Do we really want to coddle children to the point where we raise a generation of tubby wimps? Goodness, people lighten up and let the kids be kids. They will be better adults for it.

Rick Santorum has lost his mind

I mean really, how can one not draw comparisons between Iraq and Lord of the Rings?

Embattled U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said America has avoided a second terrorist attack for five years because the “Eye of Mordor” has been drawn to Iraq instead.

Santorum used the analogy from one of his favorite books, J.R.R. Tolkien's 1950s fantasy classic “Lord of the Rings,” to put an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq into terms any school kid could easily understand.

“As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else,” Santorum said, describing the tool the evil Lord Sauron used in search of the magical ring that would consolidate his power over Middle-earth.

“It's being drawn to Iraq and it's not being drawn to the U.S.,” Santorum continued. “You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don't want the Eye to come back here to the United States.”

Wow, what a loser. The level of sophistication in this analysis could be rivaled by any 15 year old Sci-Fi fan. And this guy is part of the Senate leadership. Pennsylvania must be proud. More importantly though, if at any time in a political career one says some really whacky shit like “I don't want the Eye to come back here to the United States”, that career is about to end. Santorum’s tenuous grasp of reality has been questioned for quite some time. This little episode has convinced me that he is nuts.

Meet the Stupids

Radar (hat tip the HuffPost) has posted its annual list of the top 10 dumbest legislators and it is pure comedy gold. I swear to God, it is amazing to me that these people got elected in the first place. The sheer idiocy revealed will make your eyes burn but damn is it funny. Here is an excerpt on Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska):

The scene: Fairbanks, Alaska, 1994. Congressman Don Young, already in office for 20 years, is on the stump preaching the virtues of Newt Gingrich's Republican revolution to a group of high school students. Just look at all the wasteful things the federal government does with taxpayers' money, he tells them. The National Endowment for the Arts, for example, funds art involving "people doing offensive things ... things that are absolutely ridiculous." One student asks, "Like what?"

"Buttfucking," replies the great scourge of obscenity and instructor of youth.

That is just fucking awesome. I can only imagine how a room full of high school students reacted to their Congressman deriding the NEA with such highbrow rhetoric. I am willing to bet those kids laughed so hard you could hear it from space. Go and read. You have worked hard today; you deserve a chuckle.

When drivers suck

Joe’s wife here. I have one of those jobs that is either feast or famine. Either I’m up to my ears in deadlines, or I’m sitting at my desk listening to my coworker clip her fingernails while I check WebMD for fodder to feed my already anxiety-riddled mind with thoughts that the slight twinge in the left side of my head is actually a brain tumor. Right now my job is Ethiopia, so Joe very graciously has allowed me a moment on my soapbox to chat with you all a bit. But no worries…I’m not going to talk about my aforementioned neuroticisms. No, I’m here to talk about why people suck. More specifically, why driving people suck.

Yesterday was one of those days. I had dropped my car off in east Egypt for scheduled maintenance the night before, so I hitched a ride with Joe and baby boy to work. I’m a morning person; Joe is so not. Years ago when we had to commute to work together, I’m pretty certain that I drove him crazy. That arrangement lasted all of a week. But this particular morning, we had fun. We told stories and laughed and baby J wasn’t screaming the whole way. All in all, a successful ride to work and a not so bad start to the day, especially considering that it was Monday, the devil’s day.

However, the mood of the day changed from good to not so much once Joe picked me up from work to retrieve the baby wagon. I was pretty stoked because I was leaving work early (I think I mentioned that I’m bored, yes?) and this meant I got to spend a little extra time with husband and baby. So we’re driving to pick up my car which, for those of you familiar with the Hampton Roads area, was located at a shop in the Greenbrier section of Chesapeake. Ick. Anyway, we’re driving along and chatting, baby J in the backseat happily eating his goldfish crackers when this stupid, stupid truck decides that he likes our lane better than his own and starts to move right on over. No blinker, no warning wave, nothing. It’s not a huge 18-wheeler truck, but a delivery-sized truck and certainly much bigger than Joe’s Rodeo. Joe lays on his horn, with no result at all. Said truck slides on over into our lane, barely missing us. We’re pissed. For those of you who have children, you know that it’s one thing to encounter shitty and dangerous drivers when you’re driving alone in the car. But when your child is in the car, it’s a whole other ball game (hence those stupid “Baby on Board” window suction cup thingies, I suppose). So Joe speeds on up, rolls down the window and shares some words with the driver and his passenger. Now it’s on. Apparently, they think it’s funny to again drive up next to us and move (or at least pretend to move) into our lane, very nearly hitting us. This happens one more time. It’s really not funny anymore (was it ever, really?), so we decide to get the name and number on the truck. Beamon and Lassiter. Number no longer in service. Damn.

Now, living in a Navy town, you kind of get used to the souped-up Dodge Neons and Hyundais with rims that cost more than the car itself, racing each other through traffic at 100 mph down I264. You just sigh and mutter expletives when people use the shoulder to bypass other cars stuck in traffic that have been waiting there much longer then they have. And, with people as crazy and as road-rage-ful as they are these days, you try to keep the hand signals and the f-words at bay, as you never know if somebody is carrying a gun in their glovebox. But sometimes you just can’t ignore a driver’s blatant disrespect for others on the road. This was one of those times. Unfortunately, our attempts to do something about it failed.

To end my wonderful driving experience for the day, after picking up my vehicle, I was almost klobbered not 20 minutes later by another car that didn’t look before she decided to move into my lane. Perfect. The poor construction workers that I almost hit to get out of her way were not at all pleased. If I hadn’t had to pee so bad, I would have gone after that one.

So, people, the moral to this story is, please drive safely, dammit. Hang up your cell phones (which I am guilty of myself on occasion, I must admit) and pay attention to what you’re doing. Use your turn signals and try to exercise some patience. Getting somewhere five minutes sooner is really not worth risking your life and the lives of others on the road. And, whatever you do, watch out for Beamon and Lassiter trucks. They’re really shitty drivers.

Ostentatious much

A jeweler and a baker have teamed up to make a $20 million wedding cake. WTF? Are we really this wasteful and stupid as to create something so expensive and so useless? I mean seriously, millions of dollars for an inedible cake? This is worthy of Louis XVI.

Two words: face tattoo

Mike Tyson says that he wants to fight women. This CRAZY motherfucker is a convicted rapist that bit off a chunk of Evander Holyfield. He is walking violence and should not be allowed in the ring with other men; much less a woman. And for the record, I doubt Robin Givens wants to go any more rounds.

US population hits 300 million

No wonder traffic sucks.

Race and Virginia

Both Rasmussen and the Washington Post polls show the Virginia Senate race between Allen and Webb is a dead heat. Webb is way ahead in NoVa and Allen is way ahead in the rest of the state. Both sides are burning up the airwaves with negative ads as the race has turned decidedly nasty. This one is going to come down to turnout and money.

The most disappointing thing about the recent polling is that Allen’s palpable racism has not hurt him more. I look at this election as a litmus test of the progress the Commonwealth has made on matters of race and equality. So, is Virginia a (somewhat) progressive frontier of the New South or are we just Tennessee away from being Alabama? A few weeks from now we will know the answer.

The AP channels Fox News

Every once in a while I see something so obvious and awful that it makes me want to scream. Today, it is Tom Raum’s AP article on Iraq and the Liar in Chief. The opening paragraphs are just painful:

WASHINGTON – President Bush keeps revising his explanation for why the U.S. is in Iraq, moving from narrow military objectives at first to history-of-civilization stakes now.

Initially, the rationale was specific: to stop Saddam Saddam Hussein from using what Bush claimed were the Iraqi leader's weapons of mass destruction or from selling them to al-Qaida or other terrorist groups.

But 3 1/2 years later, with no weapons found, still no end in sight and the war a liability for nearly all Republicans on the ballot Nov. 7, the justification has become far broader and now includes the expansive "struggle between good and evil."

Oh my God – you have to be kidding me. The explanation for the shifting rationale is easy. This war was based on a lie (WMD). Once that lie was disproved, Bush employed for another lie; liberation, Saddam was bad, etc. Because the liberation thing is such obvious bullshit, the Administration is trying to conflate Iraq with the War on Terror. It is an old story really. Once you tell one lie, you end up telling many more trying to cover your tracks. Mr. Raum conveniently ignores this fact and then switches into stenographer mode.

Andrew Card, Bush's first chief of staff, said Bush's evolving rhetoric, including his insistence that Iraq is a crucial part of the fight against terrorism, is part of an attempt to put the war in better perspective for Americans.

The administration recently has been "doing a much better job" in explaining the stakes, Card said in an interview. "We never said it was going to be easy. The president always told us it would be long and tough."

Wow – how in the world does he justify printing that without the slightest challenge? Good Lord – why not just type up the Republican talking point bulletin verbatim and publish. It would require the same amount of effort. In the beginning, Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney et al, were falling all over themselves to tell anyone who would listen how easy is was going to be. I believe Rummy said of the Iraq war “it could take six days, six weeks, I doubt six months”. Then you had Wolfowitz and Pearle claiming that the invasion would be a “cakewalk”. And yet Andy Card can claim the exact opposite and the AP prints without comment as though it were Gospel. This is journalistic malpractice bordering on willful propagandizing – hackfuckingtacular.

Social dynamics

I am not sure what the ramifications of this are but married folks now comprise a minority of families. I blame my parents’ generation – damn hippies.

Rep. Bob Ney pleads guilty to corruption charges; keeps Congressional seat

Please note that only Republicans can be convicted of corruption and remain in office. From the AP:

Ney did not resign his seat. Several officials have said the congressman is financially strapped and needs his $165,200 annual paycheck and benefits as long as he can continue to receive them.

Excuse me but tough shit? This guy is a criminal - fuck his Congressional benefits. Those should have been forfeited the moment he betrayed the public trust. He needs to be excised from Congress - no questions asked. This is fucking ridiculous. The next person that claims the Republicans are the party of personal responsibility should get punched in the mouth.

The funnies (and the not so funnies)

Dilbert. Boondocks. Oliphant. Toles. Luckovich.

Warner bows out

I saw that Mark Warner has decided not to run for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2008. I can’t say that I am really that upset by it; I think he needs more experience. In fact, I am hoping to takes a shot at John Warner’s seat in the Senate. None the less, he would have been an interesting foil to Hillary. Some with Warner out, John Edwards becomes the only Southern politician with a realistic shot at the nomination (sorry General Clarke, I like you and all but I don’t think your have a chance).

FWIW, how awesome would an Edwards/Obama ticket be? A charming white Southern guy and a charming black Midwesterner; pure political gold…

Doing God's work

I love to see who gets awarded the Nobel Peace prize every year - mostly because of the controversy that inevitably ensues. Nothing will make a Republican’s head explode faster than bringing up the fact that Yasser Arafat won it. Today’s award, however, should be greeted with universal approval. On the drive in this morning, I learned that the prize went to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank. Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist who pioneered the field of micro-credit from an act of personal generosity and nurtured it into the Grameen Bank. The bank lends tiny amounts of money to mostly impoverished women with the notion that they can better their family's lot in life with a little cash, faith and opportunity. That noble design has lifted millions out of abject poverty. I first heard of the Yunus and Grameen from reading a P. J. O’Rourke’s All the Trouble in the World about ten years ago and was thoroughly impressed with how a relatively small investment in people can reap enormous public good. Yunus’s ideas about finance and social responsibility are fascinating and I am thrilled to see someone so innovative and conscientious rewarded for those principles.

This really is a man and an organization deserving everyone’s praise and admiration.

Humbled

I have been a database administrator for nearly ten years. Without being too obnoxious about it, I am very good at what I do. For the last three days, however, the job has kicked my ass. After telling my boss that that a new project using untested technology will be easy, it cratered and I scrambled for an explanation of why things went south. It was more than a little humbling. We were able to revert our systems back to the previous working state, but my crew has been working some serious overtime with damn little to show for it and I looked like an overconfident dickhead to boot.

So the moral of my little story is no matter how well one can perform in everyday circumstances, one underestimates the complexity of the unknown at one’s peril. The Big Murky can bite you in the ass.

Troops to stay in Iraq until 2010

So saith Army chief of staff,Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker. This is going to make Bush and the whole pro-war crowd about as popular as Tommy Chong at a DARE meeting.

Had enough yet?

No wonder they hate us

CNN:

BALTIMORE, Maryland (CNN) -- War has wiped out about 655,000 Iraqis or more than 500 people a day since the U.S.-led invasion, a new study reports.

Violence including gunfire and bombs caused the majority of deaths but thousands of people died from worsening health and environmental conditions directly related to the conflict that began in 2003, U.S. and Iraqi public health researchers said.

"Since March 2003, an additional 2.5 percent of Iraq's population have died above what would have occurred without conflict," according to the survey of Iraqi households, titled "The Human Cost of the War in Iraq."

Good Lord. 500 people a day are dying because of Rumsfeld’s incompetent prosecution of the war. That arrogant bastard needs to be double fired. But the real culprit here is Bush; he opened this Pandora’s Box of bedlam and now has no idea how to close it.

Looking good four weeks out

A whole bunch of new polls came out and none of them look good for the Republicans (yeah!). Here are a few choice bits from the AFP report:

An ABC News/Washington Post poll found that Democrats have opened their biggest lead over Republicans in 20 years this close to an election…

The scandal over Florida lawmaker Mark Foley's sexually explicit messages to teen aides has also taken its toll: 75 percent of those polled by CNN said Republicans mishandled the matter…

All four polls gave Democrats a lead, ranging from 13 to 23 points, when voters were asked whether they planned to pick a Republican or a Democrat for Congress on November 7…

And my personal favorite,

The 23-point lead in the USA Today/Gallup poll was "double the lead Republicans had a month before they seized control of Congress in 1994," the newspaper said.

Sweet.

Science is cool

Conservationist just discovered this cute fellow in a remote Andean cloud forest. His name is Yariguies brush-finch.

What we have here is a failure to communicate

The AP is reporting that Senator Allen may have broken Senate rules by failing to file required financial disclosure paperwork. Though this probably too complicated and obtuse to gain much traction, it serves as another distraction for the Senator. All the better for the Webb campaign.

Diplomacy for Dummies

Given the state of the world (Iraq, Iran, and North Korea in particular), does anyone still think that the “Axis of Evil” speech was a good idea? This is cocksure cowboy diplomacy at its best (or worst). AmericaBlog is dubbing this the "Axis of Failure". Amen.

But all of his tough talk and bluster aside; Bush failed because he is a bungling manager who has displayed the same level of competence on foreign policy that caused him to run a couple of Texas oil companies into the ground. The man just has no idea how to handle complex situations. If a question requires an answer more nuanced that yes or no, he is incapable of comprehending it. And now, he is so far over his head that he is drowning. Somebody needs to talk some sense into him before it is too late.

Worst. President. Ever.

Just a reminder

Jim Webb and George Allen debate tonight. 8PM on your local PBS station.

Wake me when it’s Tuesday

In Iraq, the brother of the Vice President is assassinated in his own home. Several hundred police are poisoned at the iftar, the evening meal during Ramadan.

Stay the course? Does anybody in charge know what the hell they are doing?

Moving on, it has been pretty well confirmed that North Korea successfully tested a nuclear weapon yesterday. Even compared to Iraq, this is the biggest foreign policy failure for the Bush Administration thus far. Expect a much more aggressive posture from South Korea and Taiwan, and for Japan to remilitarize. Way to fucking go guys – top notch job.

In the US, the Foley scandal gets worse for the GOP. For the AP:

The Washington Post reported Sunday night that Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), confronted Foley about his Internet communications with teenagers as early as 2000.

The Post said that a former page showed Kolbe some Internet messages from Foley that had made the page uncomfortable. Kolbe's press secretary, Korenna Cline, told the Post that a Kolbe staff member advised the page last week to discuss the matter with the clerk of the House.

So they have known for six years. Explanations for Republican House leadership’s actions are coming down to two bad options: either they lied and covered up to preserve political power at the expense of kids' wellbeing or they are so manifestly incompetent that they recklessly endangered kids. Not a choice that any pol wants to make thirty days from an election.

And finally, CBGB, the birthplace of puck rock and home to some of the seminal bands of the 70’s and 80’s, is closing its doors and moving to (gasp! say it ain’t so) Las Vegas. That hurts…

This is no way to begin a week.

The world just got a whole lot more dangerous

CNN is reporting that North Korea successfully tested a nuclear weapon and South Korean officials confirmed it. Barbara Starr just said that US officials are also substantiating the report. This is a VERY BAD THING. At this moment, Japan and South Korea are very, very nervous. Both nations have the ability to create a nuclear arsenal in a relatively short period of time.

The Doomsday Clock stands at seven minutes to midnight. I expect that this will move up a bit.

The bottom is falling out

Newsweek has a new poll out that should scare the shit out of every elected Republican in the country. From MSNBC:

For the first time since 2001, the NEWSWEEK poll shows that more Americans trust the Democrats than the GOP on moral values and the war on terror. Fully 53 percent of Americans want the Democrats to win control of Congress next month, including 10 percent of Republicans, compared to just 35 percent who want the GOP to retain power. If the election were held today, 51 percent of likely voters would vote for the Democrat in their district versus 39 percent who would vote for the Republican.

[Snip]

Meanwhile, the president’s approval rating has fallen to a new all-time low for the Newsweek poll: 33 percent, down from an already anemic 36 percent in August. Only 25 percent of Americans are satisfied with the direction of the country, while 67 percent say they are not.

Bush is unpopular and no longer trusted by the American electorate. The Republican Congress’s fealty to the President has dragged them down as well. The R's have lost their two trump cards of moral values and the war on terror. If they can't run successfully on those issues, they are toast. The coming election is looking less like a coin toss and more like a tidal wave. Good thing too; they have earned it.

The Virginia Senate race

The Nation has a terrific article up on the state of the race and Webb's path from longshot to even money.

Perched in a lawn chair nearby and clutching his cane, Robert Ervin--who left the mines in 1979 after thirty-eight years--doesn't mince words. "George Allen? He's the nearest nothing ever been in this country. He's a big old fake, that's all." If enough Virginians end up agreeing with that assessment, Allen will be in a heap of trouble on November 7. And for all his lack of political panache--in fact, partly because of it--Webb will have pulled off something few thought possible: making the Republican in a Southern race look like the one who's unreal, elitist and out of touch with regular folks.

For a lot of Virginians, it's been looking like that ever since Labor Day. The holiday doubles as the state's annual kickoff for election seasons, and it's long been obligatory for politicians running statewide to appear in the big Laborfest Parade in Buena Vista, not far from the Blue Ridge Parkway. This year was a little different. Jimmy Webb was about to ship out to Iraq and his dad, the antiwar candidate, decided to skip the biggest political day of the year to say goodbye.

"Everybody had heard where Webb was that day, and why," recalls Charley Conrad. "So people are standing there watching the parade, and what do they see coming down the street but George Felix Allen, in a big white ten-gallon hat and those fancy boots he always wears, grinning and waving from atop a brown-and-white horse called--I'm not kidding--Bubba. And all I could think was, I sure hope people are paying attention."

Oh hell yeah. If you know anyone in the Commonwealth that is on the fence in this race, forward this article to them. Let's dump the faux cowboy.

Money to burn

Apparently, Trekkies have more money than they know what to do with. Somebody just paid $132,000 for a model of the Enterprise at the Sotheby’s Star Trek memorabilia auction. Maybe that makes sense if you own a Star Fleet uniform but I am hard pressed to think of a bigger waste of money.

Oh wait, I know; Iraq.

The war has cost us, thus far, nearly 2800 lives and over $400 billion. Our current burn rate is $8 billion a month. New estimates put the total cost of the war in the trillions. What has our investment bought us? Chaos and death in Baghdad.

In comparison, I guess purchasing wretchedly overpriced Star Trek crap is a much more worthy pursuit.

Gross and disturbing

Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Il) is calling for the suspension of the page program. His rational is somewhat troubling to say the least. From the AP:

He questioned an "antiquated" congressional page system that brings 15- and 16-year-olds to the Capitol and has resulted in scandals in the past.

"Some members betray their trust by taking advantage of them. We should not subject young men and women to this kind of activity, this kind of vulnerability," LaHood said in a CNN interview. He said the program should be shut down until problems can be resolved.

Translation: We are the problem. We can’t be trusted around your kids. How are we going to resolve that? The kids have to go.

I just don’t know what to make of that…

Those statements are no longer operative

The House Republican leadership is full of shit. Someone, be it Hastert, Boehner, or Reynolds, is lying to cover their ass about the Foley scandal. John at Americablog makes this abundantly clear. FWIW – my money is on Hastert.

The Catholic Church may drop Limbo

Now, I am not Catholic but, for some reason, I find that pretty interesting.

So that's how they came to be

So what if your ears are big, look at my tail! Nobody is perfect. But together baby, we can be beautiful. We can make Ewoks!

Did the FBI help in the Foley cover up? Are they lying about it now?

It is starting to look that way. AmericaBlog is all over it.

Don't forget to register to vote

Matt Stoller over at MyDD reminds us all that voter registration deadlines are coming soon. Virginia's deadline is the October 10th - find your state at the link. You can get Virginia forms here as well as your local library or DMV office.

And remember, if you don't vote, don't bitch about the outcome. Let your voice be heard November 7th.

What would Jesus ban?

Some wingnut in Georgia wants to ban Harry Potter because, well, read for yourself. From the AP:

Laura Mallory, a mother of four, told a hearing officer for the Gwinnett County Board of Education on Tuesday that the popular fiction books are an "evil" attempt to indoctrinate children in the Wicca religion.

This shit is so self-evidently stupid it makes my head hurt. I have read each book and the series says zero, nothing, zilch about any religion. This woman is a lying freak. Why are we plagued by such small-minded whiny losers? Why do people listen to such drivel? And how in the hell did she get a soapbox anyway?

We call the heartland not very smart land, IQ's are very low but threat levels are high They got a mandate, they don't want man-dates, they got so many hates and people to despise
- Leaving Jesusland by NOFX

The funnies (and the not so funnies)

Dilbert. Luckovich. Luckovich. Stahler. Toles. Oliphant. Tom Tomorrow.

The knives are out for Denny Hastert

How big an asshole do you have to be to get thrown under the bus by conservatives?














About this big…

On the Rush Limbaugh show yesterday, Jabba the House Speaker crawled up on the cross and said “If they get to me, it looks like they could affect our election as well,”…

Never mind the fact that he helped protect a predator for political reasons, Hastert is, in fact, sooooo important that the fate of the election and the Republic rests on him retaining his leadership position. Like I said, asshole. And with the discussion now on Hastert’s survival as Speaker, this scandal remains on the front page. The R's are fast forming a circular firing squad. Good for Democrats, bad for Republicans…

The NY Times has a good article up on the gathering demands that Denny resign.

When Email has four legs

Today was a really bad day in the family. After ten years of love, devotion, and patience, our boy Email was mercifully released from his mortal coil. He was blind, deaf, incontinent, and coughing painfully. I know we made the right decision. We had long held out hope that he would get better but in my case, I could not let go of the glory days when he was a wild, excitable thirty pound Pug, and yearning for a lap in which to snuggle. Today, I held his head in my hands as the drugs carried him away. As I said, today was not a good day…

Email the pug came into our lives when one of L.’s co-workers received a job offer in NYC and offered several of her five Pugs up for adoption. L., being an animal lover and a soft touch, was an easy mark. As she told me the story, she was driving this smelly, odd breathing, bug eyed creature to our piece of shit house in a dreadful neighborhood, and “he keeps staring at me and making this horrible hhhhrrrrrrr hhhhrrrrrrrrrr” sound. When he arrived at our dump, he was six years old, named Amile, and had been trained to defecate towels in the house as though they were doggie rest areas. He had worn his collar so long without a bath that a bald spot had been rubbed into his neck. His nails had curled under like they were eye-hooks. After taking one look at him, we could not in good conscience send him back to the Cruella Deville mistress from which he had come. So we took him in, changed his name, and crate trained him – at six years old.

For nearly every day for the next six months, we would arrive home to a black Pug marinating in the mix of his own urine and feces; requiring a bath for him, if not for ourselves as well. It was awful; yet we did it because he was the sweetest dog in the world. When we decided to adopt him, we did it out of mercy – he had been mistreated and we could make it better. And in a few months time, we were as happy a doggie family could be. He was the best dog a family could wish for. Treats to him, were manna from the Gods. A scratch behind the ears seemed a pleasure unknown until us. He would run headlong into your knees, just to be near you. That dog had a bark that would grab your attention like a siren, just egging for you to rub his belly. We would rename him Email, housetrain him, and take this bizarre misfit into our hearts. We loved his weirdness; we reveled in it. He was a strange little dog that had stolen our hearts. We were the happiest dog parents in the world.

When he first got sick, we tried usual stuff. Visits to the vet, etc. Eventually, we were told that our boy required tons of surgery that we could not afford. He would have to go to NC State and have an operation that he may not survive. He made it work so we made it work. He lived through the operation and we bought ourselves a couple of years. Those years have been trying, but that is what you do when you love someone. You make it work…

Today, well, we could not make it work anymore. I think that I was somewhat selfish in that I could not let him go without one more fight. He had earned the right to one more shot at the crown. But as our Vet gave Email the last shot of his life, he said that he had fought the good fight – and our boy had. He was sixteen or seventeen years old. He was now down to twenty pounds but still tough as nails. In his prime, he took on a Boxer, twice his weight, and gave not an inch. Today, he would have done the same if he could.

But as I watched the life drain from him, I know the life he had lead. He had fought the good fight. He had proven the old adage:

What matters is not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog…

On that score, our Pug Email was Great Dane…

Foley - it gets worse

In digging around on the Foley scandal, I see that ABC is reporting that some pages were warned about Foley as early as 2001. That means the Republicans have known for at least five years that the Rep. from Florida was a problem. Way to look out guys...

I am having a hard time believing that these people are so willing to endanger kids for so long. This is just plain evil.

Government by lechers and creeps

So I have been out of town and totally cut off from the news since Friday morning. I got back yesterday, flipped on CNN. Imagine my shock to see that, since Friday, it has been all Mark Foley all of the time. Apparently, Rep. Foley (R-FL) carried on inappropriate and sexually oriented email and IM sessions with more than one underage male House page. Foley, upon learning that the emails were going to go public, promptly resigned and, as of this morning, checked into an alcoholic treatment program. The great irony here is that Foley had been known as a champion for children from sexual predators (project much?).

But as we all know, the crime may not get you but the cover up will. It is now known that the House Republican leadership knew of these emails for as long as a year ago and chose to merely reprimand Rep. Foley and request that not contact the young men again. Allegations that the leadership helped cover up a potential felony has Denny Hastert, House Speaker, spinning furiously.

In his letter to Gonzales, Hastert described two sets of electronic messages from Foley to male congressional pages. The first were to the 16-year-old former page and contained no sexually explicit language and have been characterized as “overly friendly.”

The second e-mails, Hastert wrote, were sexually explicit instant messages to other pages that Hastert said he was unaware of until they were disclosed in media reports in recent days.
“These sexually explicit communications warrant a criminal referral,” Hastert said in the letter. “In so doing, it is important to know who may have had the communications and why they were not given to prosecutors before now.”

[Snip]

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also called for a criminal probe to give the public “a full accounting for this despicable episode.”

“The allegations against Congressman Foley are repugnant, but equally as bad is the possibility that Republican leaders in the House of Representatives knew there was a problem and ignored it to preserve a Congressional seat this election year,” Reid said.

“Under laws that Congressman Foley helped write, soliciting sex from a minor online is a federal crime . . . The attorney general should open a full-scale investigation immediately,” Reid said in a statement.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Sunday that the FBI is “rightly” investigating the Foley matter, which she has charged that House Republican leaders ignored for nearly a year.

“Congress must not pass the buck on investigating this cover-up,” Pelosi wrote.

So – is the Republican leadership craven enough to chance on some kids being molested for the sake of preserving their majority in the House? Again, I am playing catch up on this story so I do not know all of the facts. But it sure looks like they know they had a problem in Foley and chose to more or less ignore it for political expediency. The Republican leadership appears to have made the choice that it is OK to fuck kids as long as you can get re-elected. The whole thing smacks of the Catholic clergy molestation scandals in which powerful interests protected pedophile priests at the expense of the most vulnerable among us.

If the allegations of a cover up are true, then we are ruled by some very sick, very twisted people who can not be trusted to protect your kids, much less look after the broader interests of the American people. This is simply unconscionable; these bastards must go.