Friday, May 26, 2006
Gore's the one
The Rude Pundit (of all people) tells you why.
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Last night, Gore was as you've heard, loose, funny, and smart. Goddamn, so fuckin' smart. Every time he opened his mouth to discuss some aspect of melting ice caps or fuel efficiency, you just wanted to weep, thinking, "Jesus Christ, he won. Motherfucker won. He should be our president right now, not that inarticulate, shit-tossing baboon hunched in the ditch next to Tony Blair right now." What Gore does better than anyone in the Democratic Party right now, from Hillary Clinton to Russ Feingold, is articulate liberal issues as moral callings. Not squishy, feel-good sentiments, but deep in the soul, religious, even, moral purposes. Like, you know, Christians are supposed to do.Go read it all. I'm gonna keep saying it: RE-ELECT AL GORE!
Do the Right Thing for Rummy
CNN via DKos:
I'd suggest you stop by Act Blue and find a candidate or two you want to support with your spare change or your income tax return. Or check out the Fighting Dem Vets and support somebody who actually knows a little something about war (as opposed to fantasizing about it from an office in a wingnut think tank).
Finally, my personal favorite congressional candidate this week is Mike Caccioppoli in Arizona's CD1. Mike continues to take the fight to Republican incumbent Rick Renzi, who consistently shows up on the lists of the most corrupt members of congress (no small feat for a sophomore).
Do the Right Thing.
One more thing. Rummy blamed the Pentagon's underestimating of the Iraqi insurgency on "imperfect intelligence."
Draw your own conclusions.
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Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld refused Thursday to set a date to begin troop withdrawals from Iraq and said he trusted the American people to do "the right thing" in upcoming congressional elections.Well, perhaps that's the one place where Rummy and I agree. I expect you to do the right thing come November, too. Although I expect Rummy and I have somewhat differing definitions on that "right thing" thing.
I'd suggest you stop by Act Blue and find a candidate or two you want to support with your spare change or your income tax return. Or check out the Fighting Dem Vets and support somebody who actually knows a little something about war (as opposed to fantasizing about it from an office in a wingnut think tank).
Finally, my personal favorite congressional candidate this week is Mike Caccioppoli in Arizona's CD1. Mike continues to take the fight to Republican incumbent Rick Renzi, who consistently shows up on the lists of the most corrupt members of congress (no small feat for a sophomore).
Do the Right Thing.
One more thing. Rummy blamed the Pentagon's underestimating of the Iraqi insurgency on "imperfect intelligence."
Draw your own conclusions.
Get Some Chicks
I'm starting my weekend sitting with my daughters and listening to the new Dixie Chicks CD, Taking the Long Way, which arrived today (yes, I did pre-order it). It's currently #1 on the Amazon charts.
I'm loving it.
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I'm loving it.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
You Can Save the Internet
By now you should know about the Net Neutrality issue. It's about keeping the big TELCOs from controlling the content that flows from providers (whether Google, Atrios, Media Matters, or Rain Storm) to you.
Now you can do something about it. MoveOn.org has joined with the Christian Coalition, Google, Craig Newmark (founder of Craig's List), and many others to run an ad in support of Net Neutrality.
They have a matching grant that will double the value of your contribution to support the ad campaign.
Learn more and donate here.
UPDATE Thursday p.m. -- The House Judiciary Committee just voted to approve the Net Neutrality Bill (the Sensenbrenner-Conyers bill, HR 5417, supporting Net Neutrality). Thanks to all who phoned and email their representatives on the committee.
When it gets to the full House, everybody is going to have to lean hard, because you can bet that the Big TELCOs are going to be throwing money around like it was candy on Halloween. Don't forget to donate for the full-page NYT ad.
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Now you can do something about it. MoveOn.org has joined with the Christian Coalition, Google, Craig Newmark (founder of Craig's List), and many others to run an ad in support of Net Neutrality.
They have a matching grant that will double the value of your contribution to support the ad campaign.
Learn more and donate here.
UPDATE Thursday p.m. -- The House Judiciary Committee just voted to approve the Net Neutrality Bill (the Sensenbrenner-Conyers bill, HR 5417, supporting Net Neutrality). Thanks to all who phoned and email their representatives on the committee.
When it gets to the full House, everybody is going to have to lean hard, because you can bet that the Big TELCOs are going to be throwing money around like it was candy on Halloween. Don't forget to donate for the full-page NYT ad.
Cheney may get called . . .
to testify in the Libby case.
And on the stand he'd be, you know, under oath.
Wonder if Karl gave him up?
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And on the stand he'd be, you know, under oath.
Wonder if Karl gave him up?
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
DeLay Imitates Art
Okay, we always knew the Republicans were very confused. But who knew they were this far gone?
Via AMERICAblog, Think Progress has the story of Tom DeLay's legal defense team quoting a routine by Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert as though it were straight news.
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Via AMERICAblog, Think Progress has the story of Tom DeLay's legal defense team quoting a routine by Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert as though it were straight news.
You know that term, Reality-Based, that so many progressive bloggers have been using for a while. Now you know why.This morning, DeLay’s legal defense fund sent out a mass email criticizing the movie “The Big Buy: Tom DeLay’s Stolen Congress,” by “Outfoxed” creator Robert Greenwald.
The email features a “one-pager on the truth behind Liberal Hollywood’s the Big Buy,” and the lead item is Colbert’s interview with Greenwald on Comedy Central (where Colbert plays a faux-conservative, O’Reilly-esque character). The headline of the “fact sheet”:Hollywood Pulls Michael Moore Antic on Tom DeLayDeLay thinks Colbert is so persuasive, he’s now featuring the full video of the interview at the top of the legal fund’s website. And why not? According to the email, Greenwald “crashed and burned” under the pressure of Colbert’s hard-hitting questions, like “Who hates America more, you or Michael Moore?”Colbert Cracks the Story on Real Motivations Behind the Movie
DKos Presidential Preference Poll
Quick Summary: Feingold is the current favorite among those who say they might be thinking about running in '08. The old guard of H. Clinton, Kerry, and Daschle, etc., are quickly fading into electoral oblivion. Hillary, by the way, has dropped from a solid contender to just 2% over the past 9 months.
Clark and Warner both have double digit support, with Edwards not too far behind.
Also, there are fewer undecided votes than in the past.
But here's the kicker: Just for yucks, Kos threw in a second (fantasy) poll that included Al Gore (the other did not), and Big Al runs away with it. Feingold is a solid second place. Everybody else is an also-ran.
Draft Al. Better yet, re-elect him.
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Clark and Warner both have double digit support, with Edwards not too far behind.
Also, there are fewer undecided votes than in the past.
But here's the kicker: Just for yucks, Kos threw in a second (fantasy) poll that included Al Gore (the other did not), and Big Al runs away with it. Feingold is a solid second place. Everybody else is an also-ran.
Draft Al. Better yet, re-elect him.
Probably just a coincidence
House Speaker Dennis Hastert thinks it's unconstitutional for the Justice Department to raid the office of congress critters and remove evidence. As Susie says, they're squeeling like stuck pigs.
And, in other news, ABC reports that Hastert is being investigated in connection with a bribery cases stemming from the tribal casino deals of Jack Ambramoff and his associates.
But there's probably no connection. Really.
By the way, the Justice Department denies it is investigating Hastert.
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And, in other news, ABC reports that Hastert is being investigated in connection with a bribery cases stemming from the tribal casino deals of Jack Ambramoff and his associates.
But there's probably no connection. Really.
By the way, the Justice Department denies it is investigating Hastert.
Hastert was among nearly three dozen lawmakers who pressed the Interior Department to block a Louisiana Indian casino's casino application. An Associated Press review of campaign reports, IRS records and congressional correspondence found that Hastert and the other lawmakers had collected large donations from Abramoff and his tribal clients.We report. You decide.
Between 2001 and 2004, Hastert collected more than $100,000 in donations from Abramoff's firm and tribal clients. He also had used Abramoff's restaurant to hold fundraisers.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Hard Realities
Matt Yglesias, sitting in for Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo, provides the clearest assessment of the Iraq situation I have read in some time:
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The trouble is that it's become very clear that nobody actually has such a plan on hand. And not, fundamentally, because they aren't thinking hard enough. The issue is that there are actual limits to what our troops can accomplish. They're soldiers, not magicians. They can't conjure up a sense of national identity or widespread social support for liberalism.
What Iraq needs is a political settlement among the important factions such that everyone would prefer living under the terms of the agreements to fighting with each other. Absent such an agreement, the American military can't "fix" Iraq. Given such an agreement, the American military would be superfluous.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Quote of the Weekend
Hard to top Atrios:
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From a pure policy perspective I really don't know what to do about Iraq. I don't know how to unshit the bed. Staying in might make more sense if our country wasn't run by emotional 5-year-olds and the stupidest fucking people on the face of the planet.Don't sugar-coat it, Duncan. Tell 'em what you really think.
