De la Vega, Debunking the Armitage Story

TomDispatch - Tomgram: De la Vega, Debunking the Armitage Story:

In the first of her two-part series on the Libby case (Pardon Me?), former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega suggested that George Bush, Dick Cheney, and their supporters might already be preparing the groundwork for a Libby presidential pardon, perhaps even before the case begins in mid-January. After all, who wants all that ugly 2002-2003 linen aired, as it will be, under oath? Aren't things bad enough? In the first of her two-part series on the Libby case (Pardon Me?), former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega suggested that George Bush, Dick Cheney, and their supporters might already be preparing the groundwork for a Libby presidential pardon, perhaps even before the case begins in mid-January. After all, who wants all that ugly 2002-2003 linen aired, as it will be, under oath? Aren't things bad enough?

Bush Confounded by the 'Unacceptable' - washingtonpost.com

Whatever, we find Bush unaceptable!

Bush Confounded by the 'Unacceptable' - washingtonpost.com:

'President Bush finds the world around him increasingly 'unacceptable.'

In speeches, statements and news conferences this year, the president has repeatedly declared a range of problems 'unacceptable,' including rising health costs, immigrants who live outside the law, North Korea's claimed nuclear test, genocide in Sudan and Iran's nuclear ambitions.

GOP Redirects Funds From Faltering Races

All the news is going the Dem's way, but it ain't over until the fat frog has tried his last dirty trick, false flag op. or whatever.

They won't allow a Democractic House or Senate if there is anything they can do about it, and let's not forget that the Bushites and their enablers in Congres are a lawless bunch.

We had better be prepared for anything.

GOP Redirects Funds From Faltering Races - washingtonpost.com:

Faced with a deteriorating political climate, Republican Party officials are hoping to keep control of the House and Senate with a strategy aimed at shoring up enough endangered incumbents to preserve their majorities, while scaling back planned spending on races that now appear unwinnable.

In recent days, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has given back television time it had reserved in Democratic-held districts in West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio -- apparently concluding that those races are beyond reach unless something dramatic changes the national political environment in the 25 days before the Nov. 7 election.

The Google YouTube Tango

Not good for anyone but coprorate america.

So, what the hell else is new?

The Google YouTube Tango:

Under the radar of all but the most savvy Internet users, powerful commercial forces are rapidly creating a digital media system for the United States that threatens to undermine our ability to create a civil and just society. The takeover of YouTube by Google announced October 9 and the 2005 buyout by Rupert Murdoch of MySpace are not just about mega-deals for new media. They are the leading edge of a powerful interactive system that is being designed to serve the interests of some of the wealthiest corporations on the planet.

Documents Reveal Scope of U.S. Database on Antiwar Protests - New York Times

If you think you are being watched, it's because you are!

Documents Reveal Scope of U.S. Database on Antiwar Protests - New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 — Internal military documents released Thursday provided new details about the Defense Department’s collection of information on demonstrations nationwide last year by students, Quakers and others opposed to the Iraq war.

DSCC turns up the heat

Boil the Bastards!

DSCC turns up the heat:

As a power shift in the Senate becomes a realistic possibility four weeks before the election, Democrats yesterday gave their Senate challenger in Virginia a long-awaited advertising infusion while Republicans stayed off the air in New Jersey, their best chance at picking up a Democratic seat.

Southern Studies: The South and Iraq

OMG, even the Confederacy is waking up!

Southern Studies: The South and Iraq:

As the 2006 mid-term elections near and debate heats up about the Iraq war, a new Institute for Southern Studies opinion poll finds that support for the war is deteriorating in the South -- and by some measures, opposition is stronger in Southern states than in other parts of the country.As the 2006 mid-term elections near and debate heats up about the Iraq war, a new Institute for Southern Studies opinion poll finds that support for the war is deteriorating in the South -- and by some measures, opposition is stronger in Southern states than in other parts of the country.As the 2006 mid-term elections near and debate heats up about the Iraq war, a new Institute for Southern Studies opinion poll finds that support for the war is deteriorating in the South -- and by some measures, opposition is stronger in Southern states than in other parts of the country.

Bush and His Dangerous Delusions

Consortiumnews.com:

In George W. Bush’s world, Saddam Hussein defied United Nations demands that he get rid of his weapons of mass destruction and barred U.N. inspectors; al-Qaeda’s public statements must be believed even when contradicted by its private comments; and U.S. withdrawal from Iraq is unthinkable because it would let al-Qaeda “extend the caliphate,” a mythical state that doesn’t really exist.In George W. Bush’s world, Saddam Hussein defied United Nations demands that he get rid of his weapons of mass destruction and barred U.N. inspectors; al-Qaeda’s public statements must be believed even when contradicted by its private comments; and U.S. withdrawal from Iraq is unthinkable because it would let al-Qaeda “extend the caliphate,” a mythical state that doesn’t really exist.

Mr. Blackwell’s Designs

OMG, here we go again!

American Prospect Online - Mr. Blackwell’s Designs:

Hundreds of voters mysteriously “dropped or displaced” from registration rolls when master lists were electronically merged. Absentee ballots invalidated because voters didn’t receive a flier telling them not to remove a security stub. Poll workers who didn’t show up to work on Election Day. Polling places unable to open on time because computer memory cards for new machines hadn’t been installed. Suspicious shortages of machines in precincts that happened to be heavily Democratic. Voters who left the polls in disgust without having cast a ballot, because they just couldn’t wait for overwhelmed precinct workers to sort through a monstrous mess of administrative and equipment problems.
Ohio, 2004? Nope. Ohio, 2006. Hundreds of voters mysteriously “dropped or displaced” from registration rolls when master lists were electronically merged. Absentee ballots invalidated because voters didn’t receive a flier telling them not to remove a security stub. Poll workers who didn’t show up to work on Election Day. Polling places unable to open on time because computer memory cards for new machines hadn’t been installed. Suspicious shortages of machines in precincts that happened to be heavily Democratic. Voters who left the polls in disgust without having cast a ballot, because they just couldn’t wait for overwhelmed precinct workers to sort through a monstrous mess of administrative and equipment problems.

Ohio, 2004? Nope. Ohio, 2006.

The Coming Gay Republican Purge

Is it humanly possible for the cruading crackpots to be any more stupid?

The Coming Gay Republican Purge:

Immediately after the Mark Foley scandal broke, some anti-Republican gay-rights activists composed a memo containing the names of closeted gay Republican Congressional staffers and sent it to leading Christian-right advocacy groups. The founder and chairman of one of those groups, the Rev. Don Wildmon of the American Family Association, told me he has received that memo, which he referred to simply as 'The List.' Based on The List's contents, Wildmon is convinced that a secretive gay 'clique' boring within the Republican-controlled Congress is responsible for covering up Foley's sexual predation toward teenage male House pages. Moreover, Wildmon calls on the Republican Party leadership to promptly purge the 'subversive' gay staffers.

Crist (R) outed on the air

oops!

Gay News From 365Gay.com:

Fort Lauderdale, Florida) Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist has been the subject of speculation for several years but on Wednesday a political opponent used National Coming Out Day to say he's known for years that Crist is gay.

Appearing on WFTL, a South Florida news-talk station, independent gubernatorial candidate Max Linn said it is common knowledge in Tallahassee that Crist is gay.
And, Linn said it is time Crist acknowledged it.

'Charlie come out, come out from wherever you are,' Linn said during an interview on the station.Fort Lauderdale, Florida) Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist has been the subject of speculation for several years but on Wednesday a political opponent used National Coming Out Day to say he's known for years that Crist is gay.

Oh Jesus!

Can this freakin' get any worse?

The Blotter:

A staff supervisor at the dorm for congressional pages intervened when former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) tried to pay the teens a nighttime visit in the summer of 2000, ABC News has learned.

The pages were having an informal 'mixer' party in their dorm at the Tip O'Neil building behind the Capitol, according to a former page who was 17 at the time.

'It was a beautiful summer evening, and I recall Mr. Foley arriving in his blue Series 3 BMW convertible about 9:30 at night,' the former page said. 'Several of us saw him and went outside to chat.'

Robert Scheer: Dear Leader Brings It On

God-damned asshole and his co-assholes deserve to spend the rest of their lives at Gitmo!

Truthdig - Reports - Robert Scheer: Dear Leader Brings It On:

Well, Bush showed them, didn’t he?

Over the past six years, our “my way or the highway” president blew up a crucial nonproliferation agreement which was keeping North Korea’s plutonium stores under seal, ended bilateral talks with Pyongyang, squashed Japan’s and South Korea’s carefully constructed “sunshine policy,” which was slowly drawing the bizarre Hermit Kingdom back into the light, and then took every opportunity to personally insult the country’s reportedly unstable dictator because it played well politically at home.

Ron Kovic: Breaking the Silence of the Night

Ron, my old friend, brother in arms, the time is now!

Truthdig - Reports - Ron Kovic: Breaking the Silence of the Night:

It all begins somewhere, the questioning, the doubting, the feeling that something’s not right; like that day the captain set fire to the Vietnamese woman’s hooch, or the night we shot those women and children by mistake. It’s all got to start somewhere. For them it might have been the innocent civilians killed that day at the checkpoint just north of Baghdad or the dead children lying in the road in Kirkuk, or that night in Nasiriyah when they kicked in the front door of that house, screaming and cursing at the children as they threw their father to the floor, tying his hands behind his back and putting a hood over his head, but you remain silent, you say nothing. You’ve been taught to follow orders, to obey and not question, to go along with the program and do exactly what you’re told. You learned that in boot camp.

Christian Right wants a Gay purge on the Hill

Well, that should be interesting.

Will anyone be left, with any sense at all?

The Swamp - Chicago Tribune - Blogs.:

So are we seeing the beginnings of the Mark Foley-related backlash at the hands of religious and other conservatives against Republican gays with important Capitol Hill staff jobs?

When I tried to gauge that last week by phoning religious-conservative groups like the Alliance for Marriage and Focus on the Family, they demurred. Even the Family Research Council didn’t get back to me with a spokesman.

Anyway, I'm not taking it personally that Tony Perkins, the council’s president, devoted his Washington Update yesterday to the very matter I wanted to talk with him about.

Voter excitement level highest in years

There should be total obsession with this election.

It is the most important election in my 57 years.

Voter excitement level highest in years - Yahoo! News:

"WASHINGTON - Politics is a water-cooler topic, a dinner-table subject, an issue to discuss after Sunday services, and this year the interest of American voters is at its highest level in more than a decade.

That renewed attention could translate into higher voter turnout on Nov. 7, according to an Associated Press-Pew poll.

Seventy percent say they are talking politics with family and friends, and 43 percent are debating the issues at work. Among churchgoers, 28 percent share their political views, a number that rises to 34 percent among the congregations in the South.

The relationship with politics is not unrequited.

Americans have heard from the candidates and campaigns through phone calls, e-mail or one-on-one. In turn, they've participated more in the political process, attending campaign events, circulating petitions and making political donations.

Rice Asserts U.S. Plans No Attack on North Korea - New York Times

Yeah, well, who can trust that lying bitch any further than they can throw her?

If they don't have plans to nuke the hell out of North Korea, it is because they have no oil to control.

Besides, leave Kim Jung Fool to China, right? The Bushites are busy trying to find a way to nuke Iran.

Rice Asserts U.S. Plans No Attack on North Korea - New York Times

The paranoids are right

We have been right about everything so far.

When will the rest of you start listening?

WorkingForChange-The paranoids are right:

WASHINGTON -- Sometimes, paranoids are right. And sometimes even when paranoids are wrong, it's worth considering what they're worried about.

I speak here of all who are worried sick that those new, fancy high-tech voting systems can be hacked, fiddled with and otherwise made to record votes that aren't cast, or fail to record votes that are.

I do not pretend to know how large a threat this is. I do know that it's a threat to democracy when so many Americans doubt that their votes will be recorded accurately. And I also know that smart, computer-savvy people out there are concerned about these machines.

Bush's N. Korea Policy, A Huge Mistake

According to aide to Poppy.

AMERICAblog: A blog for a great nation that deserves the truth: "

This is interesting, coming from Donald Gregg, the National Security Adviser to George Bush's father when he was vice president under Ronald Reagan.

As an aside, Donald Gregg taught a graduate class I was in at Georgetown. My favorite Donald Gregg quote from class was when he told us 'Oliver North's only mistake was taking too many notes.' You get the picture - not exactly a flaming liberal.

US grants N Korea nuclear funds

Do you ever get the feeling that we have no clue what the Bushites are really doing?

BBC News ASIA-PACIFIC US grants N Korea nuclear funds:

The US Government has announced that it will release $95m to North Korea as part of an agreement to replace the Stalinist country's own nuclear programme, which the US suspected was being misused.

Under the 1994 Agreed Framework an international consortium is building two proliferation-proof nuclear reactors and providing fuel oil for North Korea while the reactors are being built. The US Government has announced that it will release $95m to North Korea as part of an agreement to replace the Stalinist country's own nuclear programme, which the US suspected was being misused.
Under the 1994 Agreed Framework an international consortium is building two proliferation-proof nuclear reactors and providing fuel oil for North Korea while the reactors are being built.

Poll Shows Foley Case Is Hurting Congress’s Image

Have Americans finally regained their senses?

Poll Shows Foley Case Is Hurting Congress’s Image - New York Times:

Americans say that Republican Congressional leaders put their political interests ahead of protecting the safety of teenage pages, and that House leaders knew of Mark Foley’s sexually charged messages to pages well before he was forced to quit Congress, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The Union Leader: "Speaker, others must go" | BuzzFlash

We whole-heartedy agree!

However, it will probably be better for the Democrats if these Jackasses stay right where they are.

The Union Leader: "Speaker, others must go" BuzzFlash:

The Union Leader: 'Speaker, others must go'

Washington, DC - Over the weekend, an editorial in the Union Leader in New Hampshire said that for his gross mishandling of the Foley scandal, 'Republicans must insist that [Speaker Hastert] resign.' They also noted that Hastert's efforts to blame Democrats have fallen flat and that 'there is not one shred of evidence to back up that claim.

Iran Attack Looks More Likely as Eisenhower Carrier Group Sails for Iran Theater | BuzzFlash

Bush and Cheney are insane! Is there anyway to stop these fools?

Dave Lindorff: Iran Attack Looks More Likely as Eisenhower Carrier Group Sails for Iran Theater BuzzFlash:

BREAKING NEWS: Eisenhower Carrier Group Sails for Iran Theater

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Eisenhower and its accompanying strike force of cruiser, destroyer and attack submarine slipped their moorings and headed off for the Persian Gulf region on Oct. 2, as I had predicted in a piece in The Nation magazine a few weeks back.

The Eisenhower strike force, according to my sources, is scheduled to arrive in the vicinity of Iran around October 21, at the same time as a second flotilla of minesweepers and other ships.
This build-up of naval power around the coast of Iran, according to some military sources, is in preparation for an air attack on Iran that would target not just Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities, but its entire military command and control system.

GOP Officials Brace for Loss Of Seven to 30 House Seats

Pray it's a blow out!

I would hate to have to move to New Zealand in my golden years.

GOP Officials Brace for Loss Of Seven to 30 House Seats - washingtonpost.com:

Republican campaign officials said yesterday that they expect to lose at least seven House seats and as many as 30 in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, as a result of sustained violence in Iraq and the page scandal involving former GOP representative Mark Foley.

Democrats need to pick up 15 seats in the election to take back control of the House after more than a decade of GOP leadership. Two weeks of virtually nonstop controversy over President Bush's war policy and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's handling of the page scandal have forced party leaders to recalculate their vulnerability and placed a growing number of Republican incumbents and open seats at much greater risk.

Poll Shows Strong Shift Of Support to Democrats

Glory!

Poll Shows Strong Shift Of Support to Democrats - washingtonpost.com:

Democrats have regained a commanding position going into the final weeks of the midterm-election campaigns, with support eroding for Republicans on Iraq, ethics and presidential leadership, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

American Prison Camps Are on the Way

It was only a matter of time.

These Bushites have no intenton of laeaving power, ever, in the hands of the opposition.

Well, here's the deal, Junior, I am not going to shut up! Not now, not ever. Got that?

AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: American Prison Camps Are on the Way:

Kellogg Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, is constructing a huge facility at an undisclosed location to hold tens of thousands of Bush's 'unlawful enemy combatants.' Americans are certain to be among them.

Lawmaker Saw Foley Messages In 2000 - washingtonpost.com

These thugs don' t give a damn about anything but money and power!

Lawmaker Saw Foley Messages In 2000 - washingtonpost.com:

A Republican congressman knew of disgraced former representative Mark Foley's inappropriate Internet exchanges as far back as 2000 and personally confronted Foley about his communications.
A spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) confirmed yesterday that a former page showed the congressman Internet messages that had made the youth feel uncomfortable with the direction Foley (R-Fla.) was taking their e-mail relationship. Last week, when the Foley matter erupted, a Kolbe staff member suggested to the former page that he take the matter to the clerk of the House, Karen Haas, said Kolbe's press secretary, Korenna Cline.

The revelation pushes back by at least five years the date when a member of Congress has acknowledged learning of Foley's behavior with former pages. A timeline issued by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) suggested that the first lawmakers to know, Rep. John M. Shimkus (R-Ill.), the chairman of the House Page Board, and Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.), became aware of 'over-friendly' e-mails only last fall. It also expands the universe of players in the drama beyond members, either in leadership or on the page board.

Republicans try to implicate Pelosi in Predatorgate with nonsense

Unfreakinbelievable!

These guys are really whackjobs, who deserve to be deafeated!

Crooks and Liars » Republicans try to implicate Pelosi in Predatorgate with nonsense:

Rep. McHenery: This is not about Dennis Hastert. It's about the sick acts perpetrated by Mark Foley and the question remains. The only question that remains is what did the Democrat leadership know and when did they know it. And I asked Rahm Emanuel and Nancy Pelosi to submit themselves under oath. They said no.

That's the only question that remains you sick twisted duo? I say that with all due respect I deem appropriate for gutless weasels I might add. I did enjoy Matthews throwing Newt Gingrich's wife cheating ways into the conversation. The meida treats him like some sort of all American folk hero nowadays.

Matthews: 'You've had three sex scandals in a row knocking off your top guy, maybe the voters will pay attention to that?'

Bush brings faith to foreign aid

Yet another reason for Tax Resistance

Bush brings faith to foreign aid - The Boston Globe:

LAKARTINYA, Kenya -- The herders of this remote mountain village know little about America, but have learned from those who run a US-funded aid program about the American God.
A Christian God.

The US government has given $10.9 million to Food for the Hungry, a faith-based development organization, to reach deep into the arid mountains of northern Kenya to provide training in hygiene, childhood illnesses, and clean water. The group has brought all that, and something else that increasingly accompanies US-funded aid programs: r egular church service and prayer.

President Bush has almost doubled the percentage of US foreign-aid dollars going to faith-based groups such as Food for the Hungry, according to a Globe survey of government data. And in seeking to help such groups obtain more contracts, Bush has systematically eliminated or weakened rules designed to enforce the separation of church and state.

Reynolds is badly trailing Davis, poll shows

Is the GOP really toast? Can it really be?

Buffalo News - Reynolds is badly trailing Davis, poll shows:

Democrat Jack Davis has opened a significant lead over Republican incumbent Thomas M. Reynolds in a congressional contest fueled by Reynolds' association with the Mark Foley sex scandal.

Davis leads Reynolds 48 percent to 33 percent in a new Zogby International poll conducted for The Buffalo News, prompting pollster John Zogby to conclude that Davis poses a genuine threat to the longtime powerhouse from Clarence.

'There is no other way to look at these numbers except to say Tom Reynolds is in trouble,' the Utica-based Zogby said.

The Big-Sky Dem

The Big-Sky Dem - New York Times:

It’s fun being governor of Montana. Just watch Brian Schweitzer bouncing around the streets of Helena in the passenger seat of the state’s official S.U.V., fumbling with wires, trying to stick the flashing police light on the roof. When he spots some legislators on the sidewalk, he blasts them with the siren, then summons them by name on the loudspeaker. The men jump, and the governor tumbles out of the car, doubled in laughter, giving everyone a bear hug or a high-five or a soft slap on the cheek. Schweitzer, a Democrat in his first term, marches into a barroom in blue jeans and cowboy boots and a beaded bolo tie, and his border collie, Jag, leaps out of the vehicle and follows him in. The governor throws back a few pints of the local brew and introduces himself to everyone in the place, down to the servers and a small girl stuck there with her parents. He takes time from the backslapping to poach cubes of cheese from the snack platter and sneak them to the girl, who is now chasing his dog around the bar. “This is how you make friends with Jag,” he advises her. “Just hold it in your hand and let him take it.” It’s fun being governor of Montana. Just watch Brian Schweitzer bouncing around the streets of Helena in the passenger seat of the state’s official S.U.V., fumbling with wires, trying to stick the flashing police light on the roof. When he spots some legislators on the sidewalk, he blasts them with the siren, then summons them by name on the loudspeaker. The men jump, and the governor tumbles out of the car, doubled in laughter, giving everyone a bear hug or a high-five or a soft slap on the cheek.

Rein in The Decider (continued)

It was time to rein him in when he stole the elction in 2000. Everything that has happened since only makes it more obvious.

Rein in The Decider (continued):

First a bipartisan American Bar Association panel decried George W. Bush's unconstitutional use of signing statements. And now, according to The Boston Globe, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) has declared that the President is using signing statements as 'an integral part of his comprehensive strategy to strengthen and expand executive power at the expense of the legislative branch.'

End of the Revolution

Dare we hope?

TIME.com: End of the Revolution -- Oct. 16, 2006 -- Page 1:

Every revolution begins with the power of an idea and ends when clinging to power is the only idea left. The epitaph for the movement that started when Newt Gingrich and his forces rose from the back bench of the House chamber in 1994 may well have been written last week in the same medium that incubated it: talk radio. On conservative commentator Laura Ingraham's show, the longest-serving Republican House Speaker in history explained why he would not resign despite a sex scandal that has produced a hail of questions about his leadership and the failure to stop one of his members from cyberstalking teenage congressional pages. 'If I fold up my tent and leave,' Dennis Hastert told her, 'then where does that leave us? If the Democrats sweep, then we'd have no ability to fight back and get our message out.'

Warner’s Iraq Remarks Surprise White House

I would say that the White House has better get used to it.

More is coming!!

Warner’s Iraq Remarks Surprise White House - New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 — The White House, caught off guard by a leading Republican senator who said the situation in Iraq was “drifting sideways,” responded cautiously on Friday, with a spokeswoman for President Bush stopping short of saying outright that Mr. Bush disagreed with the assessment.

“I don’t believe that the president thinks that way,” Dana Perino, the deputy White House press secretary, said when asked whether the president agreed with the senator, John Warner of Virginia. “I think that he believes that while it is tough going in Iraq, that slow progress is being made.”

Ms. Perino’s carefully worded response underscores the delicate situation that Mr. Warner, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, has created for the White House just one month before an election in which Mr. Bush has been trying to shift the national debate from the war in Iraq to the broader war on terror. WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 — The White House, caught off guard by a leading Republican senator who said the situation in Iraq was “drifting sideways,” responded cautiously on Friday, with a spokeswoman for President Bush stopping short of saying outright that Mr. Bush disagreed with the assessment.

Foley Consuming GOP As Elections Draw Near - washingtonpost.com

If the Rethugs win this time, there can be no doubt that Gooper skullduggery is the reason.

Foley Consuming GOP As Elections Draw Near - washingtonpost.com:

In both parties, there is rough agreement among operatives that the impact of the Foley scandal is likely to be felt in two different ways.

There are several places where local factors could amplify the scandal's destructive power against Republican candidates. Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R), who is facing questions about his own role in responding to reports of Foley's conduct, is suddenly in a tough race against Democrat Jack Davis in an upstate New York district. In Pennsylvania, Republican Rep. Don Sherwood's already troubled campaign hardly needed anything that might remind voters of his admission earlier this year that he had an affair with a woman who accused him of physical abuse.

Beyond these specific races, however, many strategists in both parties believe the scandal might echo principally as a metaphor for a GOP leadership that over the past year has drawn more attention for ethical lapses and partisan turmoil than legislative achievements.

American Blackout (DVD)

If this doesn't infuriate you, nothing will

American Blackout (DVD):

From the Miami Herald:

Some cried. Others left angry. Most displayed some kind of emotion.

From San Francisco, to Los Angeles, to Boston, American Blackout -- a documentary alleging disfranchisement of black voters in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections -- has triggered strong reactions from viewers nationwide.

''What hits people the most is that in this day and age, the suppression of the black and Latino vote is still happening,'' said Jean-Philippe Boucicaut, a co-producer and an editor of the documentary. (End of Miami Herald quotation.)From the Miami Herald:

Some cried. Others left angry. Most displayed some kind of emotion.

From San Francisco, to Los Angeles, to Boston, American Blackout -- a documentary alleging disfranchisement of black voters in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections -- has triggered strong reactions from viewers nationwide.

''What hits people the most is that in this day and age, the suppression of the black and Latino vote is still happening,'' said Jean-Philippe Boucicaut, a co-producer and an editor of the documentary. (End of Miami Herald quotation.)

Voter registrations faked in GOP drive - Nashville, Tennessee - Friday, 10/06/06 - Tennessean.com

The Rethugs are at it again!

Voter registrations faked in GOP drive - Nashville, Tennessee - Friday, 10/06/06 - Tennessean.com:

At least five apparently bogus voter registration forms were submitted to the Metro Nashville election commission by a worker with ties to the Republican National Committee, and up to 150 other registrations have been called into question, The Tennessean has learned.

Election officials in Williamson County said they were probing three to five potentially fraudulent forms that might or might not be related to the Metro cases.

Iran behind Rice's Mid-East tour

OMG, they are going to do this, no matter what!

BBC NEWS Middle East Iran behind Rice's Mid-East tour:

Why did Condoleezza Rice come to Israel and the West Bank earlier this week?

By all accounts, the US secretary of state had no fresh ideas to offer to revive what used to be called the Middle East peace process.
Both the Palestinian and Israeli sides have governments too weak to handle any major initiative.
Aides on all sides played down the prospects of any progress. It seems they were right. So why come at all?

Many Arab and Israeli commentators have found the same answer: Iran. Why did Condoleezza Rice come to Israel and the West Bank earlier this week?

By all accounts, the US secretary of state had no fresh ideas to offer to revive what used to be called the Middle East peace process.

Both the Palestinian and Israeli sides have governments too weak to handle any major initiative.
Aides on all sides played down the prospects of any progress. It seems they were right. So why come at all?

Many Arab and Israeli commentators have found the same answer: Iran.

Same song, different scandal

It's all a part of the same hypocrisy that has been the signature of the Bush administration and their enablers in Congress..

Same song, different scandal - The Boston Globe:

THROUGHOUT THE Bush era, voters have not always connected the dots. The Foley scandal now enveloping the House Republican leadership offers a belated opportunity for voters to make some connections. Yes, the scandal is about the disgrace of a congressman sending disgusting messages to teenage pages, and the failure of leaders to act on escalating warnings. But it is so much more.

Jeb Bush gets rude welcome

Hiding in a supply closet....oh this is just too funny!

Way to go guys!

Jeb Bush gets rude welcome:

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, in town for a fund-raiser for Sen. Rick Santorum, had a close encounter with a large group of anti-Republican protesters as he was making his way to the Duquesne Club, Downtown.

It was about 4:15 yesterday when Mr. Bush met up with the protesters near the corner of Liberty and Sixth avenues. The protesters were marching to join other pickets already gathered in front of the exclusive club, a little more than a block away at 325 Sixth Ave.

Protesters said Gov. Bush blew them a kiss, acknowledging the crowd of about 30 chanting pickets that was made up of United Steelworkers and members of Uprise Counter Recruitment, a tour traveling through 22 cities to support anti-war efforts.

The protesters came closer. (read on^; it gets better)

U.S. Casualties in Iraq Rise Sharply

Who will be hthe last man to die, or have a life-long brain injury, for Bush and Cheney.

U.S. Casualties in Iraq Rise Sharply - washingtonpost.com:

These days, wounded are a much better measure of the intensity of the operations than killed,' said Anthony H. Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

The surge in wounded comes as U.S. commanders issue increasingly dire warnings about the threat of civil war in Iraq, all but ruling out cuts in the current contingent of more than 140,000 U.S. troops before the spring of 2007. Last month Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top commander in the Middle East, said 'sectarian tensions, if left unchecked, could be fatal to Iraq,' making it imperative that the U.S. military now focus its 'main effort' squarely on Baghdad.

Thousands of additional U.S. troops have been ordered to Baghdad since July to reinforce Iraqi soldiers and police who failed to halt -- or were in some cases complicit in -- a wave of hundreds of killings of Iraqi civilians by rival Sunni and Shiite groups.

NEWSWEEK Poll: GOP in Meltdown

....but they still have Diebold, and other trickery.

NEWSWEEK Poll: GOP in Meltdown - Newsweek Politics - MSNBC.com:

Oct. 7, 2006 - Come hell or high water-ran the conventional wisdom-Republicans could rely on two issues to win elections: the war on terror and values. Then came Mark Foley. The drip-drip-drip of scandal surrounding the former Congressman from Florida, which became a deluge this week, now threatens to sink Republican hopes of keeping control of Congress, says the NEWSWEEK poll out today.