I know this site is supposed to be about sound politics, and I have a tendency to focus on national issues, but I have to say this today because my belly is full. Bush authorized leaks via Scooter Libby. Essentially (and we’ll have to see how this plays out) he is the man that authorized the leak of Valerie Plame. Bush said that he would fire anyone involved in the scandal, so I’m wondering if he’s going to fire Cheney before he resigns. The men in charge of our country have authorized treason, and one more day for them in office is another day that democracy rots in its grave. Today I can truly say that I am absolutely ashamed to call George Bush my president. The son of privilege, using his lies and his stupid smirk to sell his bogus programs, wars, and agenda. There’s no way to spin out of this, and I wait with baited breath to hear his talking heads try to do so. This is truly a black day for America.

Ding Dong, The Douchebag's Gone!

For some reason, I feel really good today. The sun is shining, the air is crisp, and the hammer has fallen.

I’m surprised at how dead the site is with so much going on lately. Is anyone else alive out there?

First, we have the wiretapping scandal, and the requisite spin put on it by the pundits. All the talking points say that the president needs to do what needs to be done to protect us. Yes, he does, but he also needs to follow the constitution. If it was an emergency, then he had up to 72 hours to get the subpoena after the info was gathered. He did not, and it reeks with its illegality. Remember that when your conservative blowhard uncle says that. Constitution followed by subpoena. 72 hours. Watch the smoke coming out of his ears trying to think of a response to that.

Next we have the Abramoff scandal. First off, who is this guy Abram who keeps getting jacked off? Such profanity doesn’t belong on TV! Oh, the guys name is Jack Abramoff? Oh, never mind. So I was watching c-span last night, it was a repeat of the hearings on the Abramoff-Reed Indian Gambling Scandal. There were the managing partner of Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff’s last firm, the outside counsel of the Louisiana Coushatta Tribe, and one of the tribal council members of the tribe. You could just see the disgust on their faces for being associated with the scumbag Abramoff, and to hear what they had to say makes me hope that although he’s getting a plea deal that his penalty includes some time in federal “pound me in the ass” prison. I hope the same happens to Ralph “good Christian coalition” Reed, Grover “drown the government” Nordquist and Michael “fucking douche bag” Scanlon. They basically worked both sides of the Indian gambling industry, eventually having several tribes paying money to the Christian coalition to stop other tribes from opening casinos. I draw particular offense to this because I am part Choctaw, and to see my people be extorted by these right wing fucks really gets me by my velvet plum sack. I hope everyone involved in this scandal get theirs in a big way. Maybe we will get lucky and not have to vote out all the scumbags, they’ll do it all for themselves.

President Bush's visit to Argentina has been met with a violent response. Now, many of us here understand why so many across the globe, and currently nearly 60% of Americans in every major poll, feel that Dubya is so dangerous to human rights and to the progress of human freedom and dignity.

But, for those 35% or so that will never leave Dubya, even in the darkest hours, they should take a look on the front page of Yahoo! right now.

Summit Protests Turn Violent in Argentina - Thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of this seaside resort Friday chanting "Get out Bush" as the U.S. president sought to promote free trade at a divided Summit of the Americas. Protests turned violent with about 1,000 people shattering shopfronts with clubs and pelting riot police with stones... Demonstrators took to the streets hours before the summit started, shouting insults about President Bush and chanting "Fascist Bush! You are the terrorist!"

The remaining Bush faithful (at this point I'm going to call them dead-enders... thanks Rummy!) are shocked and dismayed with such statements and opposition. Why, George is just a good-old boy! He's one of us. He's making the world safe for freedom. We're freedom lovers. You're with us or against us. The conservative dead-enders are asking, how come these people hate America so much?

Maybe because they're also reading the story directly below, too!

I want to spend some time later (...stupid job, always making me work!) looking at the state of the republican coalition, how it is fracturing under the weight of calamity, and how that plays out in Washington State politics. But until then, I offer you this teaser:

http://www.withdrawmiers.org

This site, put together by conservatives who want to see a justice "truly in the mold of Scalia & Thomas" is a shocking example of Republicans acting exactly like Democrats.

When the President's numbers go south, the loyalty crumbles.

More to come later.

"What can I do today to get you into this '89 LeBaron?"

Priceless.

I was down at Belltown Billiards on Friday night, doing what I do best (drinking beer), when I had a very rare opportunity. I was waiting on some friends, and I didn’t want to be the guy sitting alone at the bar, so when I heard a guy talking about his dad being in the Marines I told him that I was also in the Corps. This fellow was very excited to talk to me, telling me all about his family being in and how he wished he could go in, but they wouldn’t let him because of some skin problem that he had. He told me how he was going to make his kids join, to which I chimed in I would talk to my children about joining and try to discourage them because being in isn’t really all that great. Oh boy. Can open, worms everywhere. This guy asked me why the hell I got out, I told him I did my four years, it wasn’t for me, and when my contract was up I went. He started going off on me about how I had dropped out, and that I was a disgrace to America and that I had no patriotism. To that I replied that I’m not a violent person, but if he said that again I was going to kick him in his ever-loving ass. At this point the bartender intervened, and told the gentleman that if he kept it up he would be asked to leave. Of course, you put alcohol in an asshole I and it’s bound to bloviate. He asked me about what happened on 9/11, and I stated that 14 Saudis, a couple of Egyptians and a Lebanese hijacked planes and flew them into buildings, and I stated the nationalities of the men who did it to make a point; what did anything with 9/11 have to do with Iraq? Of course, this guy is that 30% who still believes that it was all Iraqis on those flights, and that’s why. To that, I called him fucking retarded, and he was asked to leave the bar, to which he did all the way yelling that he was a small business owner.

A group of people for Tennessee just figured out why the war in Iraq isn’t going as smoothly as most of us her in the U.S. would like.

The Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro Baptist in Kansas, contends that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays. The church, which is not affiliated with a larger denomination, is made up mostly of Phelps' children, grandchildren and in-laws.
The church members carried signs and shouted things such as "God hates fags" and "God hates you.

Stories like this make me wish the Department of Defense would expand its global fight against extremism.

I’ve had it. I’ve had it with a well known Christian man who thinks he has the right to use his pulpit to make terrorist comments and not expect any repercussions. Today Pat Robertson has made another comment equally despicable as his “Nuke Foggy Bottom” comment back in 2003 in his call for the assassination of Hugo Chavez, the leader of Venezuela. How many more comments is this monster going to be allowed to say before anything is done besides someone chastising him? This man has given birth to the Eric Rudolphs of the world, the fringe right religious whackos. Is he protected because he is a good “Christian”? I thought making terrorist statements was a crime, but I guess that doesn’t apply if you are rich, white, and Christian. BTW, I’m not down on Christianity, I just don’t like people who make a profit off of it tax free like the whore of Babylon Robertson. I’d like to see him in a jail cell before someone actually takes him seriously and does something he suggests.

So, I was responding to the troll we had lurking around and writing out some of the things that ridiculous people like her believe, when I thought, wow this shit really is ridiculous!

Then I thought about the idea that I bet we, collectively, can probably isolate all of the bullshit ideas that seem to prop up the right wing of this country's politics and that serve no real purpose other than to play on fear, resentment and anger.

So, I'm going to plagiarize myself here a bit and pull out the list I did in the other comment thread.

Some of the most egregiously empty and vacuous ideas on the right:

1. That you can get AIDS from a waterfountain.
2. That affirmative action is just "reverse racism."
3. That Bush talks to God, and that such a notion is not proof of either delirium or idiocy.
4. That gay people are just confused and can be "taught" not to be gay.
5. That being pro-choice = being "pro-abortion"

So after numerous failures to upgrade, coordinate, and empower our force of dipshit agents we call Homeland Security, it seems that Bush is convinced we just need more frosting on the timebomb despite so many expensive decisions leading no-where.

Hinting at a blossoming future of freedom's past, this section of a NYT post on the subject makes me feel security blanket warm and fuzzy inside:

General Michael V. Hayden, the deputy director of national intelligence, said the government would take steps to ensure that the changes did not impinge on American civil liberties. But in a briefing for reporters, General Hayden also said that the United States no longer had the luxury of maintaining divisions between its foreign and domestic intelligence structures, because "our enemy does not recognize that distinction."

But why are we fixing the ever-broke intelligence agencies yet again you hopefully ask?

While Howard Dean is defending his comment that Republicans are "a pretty monolithic party. They all behave the same. They all look the same. It's pretty much a white Christian party. I thought that I would support his argument with a couple of quotes from the American Taliban

Dick Cheney is at the Grand Hyatt downtown. If you can come down and be a pain in his ass it would be greatly appreciated.

What a sad day. The Supreme Court has ruled that people who have been prescribed medical marijuana for legitimate medical reasons are not protected under federal law. Why is that? Why does the federal government feel the need to punish those with MS, migraines, AIDS, glaucoma and cancer because of a legal prescription? I shudder to think that there are people out there right now who are taking dangerous highly addictive pharmaceutical drugs like vicodin, paxil, even cough syrup for chrissakes, and they are exempt from prosecution. All of these above listed drugs can kill you, yet there has not been one single death from marijuana. Not one. This is just another backwards bizzarro world step in the war on cannabis.

Another thing I can’t understand is how the republicans, the party of states rights and reduced government feels the need to usurp voter approved initiatives that approved medical marijuana in individual states. Oh, that’s right- they care about states rights when it comes to things they agree with. But when it comes to things like federal funding of schools, social programs, and the drug war they drive the federal tank right over you.

Below is a blog written by Jonah Goldberg, an otherwise hateful and spiteful little man from the National Review who likes to blog about how Republicans are awesome cuz they are so optimistic and happy while Dems are just so dour. Like its cool to smile while your house is on fire.

Anyway, you'll notice that Goldberg takes issue with the NR's reversal on the fillibuster. The point: There are Republicans who don't believe its a good thing to have Dobson elbow deep in the R's asshole and using his stubby fingers to make Frist talk.

Without further ado:
_____________________________________________________________
NR ON FILIBUSTERS [Jonah Goldberg ]
Let's stir the pot nice and early. I'm not sure I understand NR's reversal on filibusters. In a December editorial -- titled "Let them Filibuster" -- the magazine said:
So we sympathize with those Republicans who have been proposing to change the Senate rules to make it easier to confirm nominees who have majority support. Nevertheless, we think the idea is a mistake.

Thought everybody might be interested in some of the places you can go to catch the live bloggers feed on the filli-fight.

No disrespect to cspan, but its a lot harder to hide from my boss while i very much don't work.

http://www.swingstateproject.com/

http://www.dailykos.com/

http://www.talkleft.com/

Seriously, if you haven't had a chance, tell the Democrats that you think they are doing a good job. Either with money or a an email, do something to let them know.

In the news today is an item in regards to the struggles that California is having in funding stem cell research. As you might recall, proposition 71 passed in California with a 59 to 41 percent margin, showing a good majority of Californians support stem cell research and they want to see it go forward.

A lawsuit has been filed in the courts alleging that the finances for the research are not properly overseen by the government in Sacramento. At first, it seems like a perfectly normal legal suit to make sure that the government is doing the accounting. The problem lies within the filers of the lawsuit; The Life Legal Defense Foundation, a group that helps anti-abortion activists and also filed a case in Florida to keep Terry Schiavo alive are responsible. I’m not an expert here, but I would think another group that would be concerned with public funds would file such a suit, but none have. We now have a religious group stopping progress that was approved by a majority of voters in California. The sweet dripping irony in this is the pro-life people are using the courts to change the laws, or to say otherwise using judicial activism. I guess what’s good for the goose, hmmm?

This headline has me almost-- almost-- at a loss for words:

FDA to Restrict Gay Sperm Donors

Sounds bad, yes. But keep reading:

[T]he Food and Drug Administration is about to implement new rules recommending that any man who has engaged in homosexual sex in the previous five years be barred from serving as an anonymous sperm donor....

"Under these rules, a heterosexual man who had unprotected sex with HIV-positive prostitutes would be OK as a donor one year later, but a gay man in a monogamous, safe-sex relationship is not OK unless he's been celibate for five years...."

"The part I find most offensive - and a little frightening - is that it isn't based on good science.... There's a steadily increasing trend of heterosexual transmission of HIV, and yet the FDA still has this notion that you protect people by putting gay men out of the pool."

Ooooh I'm doing it again. I'm talking about the Bush administration, when I'd rather be talking about local stuff. I can't help myself though-- I've got myself a super-secret inside source, which leaves me no choice but to share with my BetterDonkey lovelies. Aren't you lucky?!

So... you all know about Bush's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, right? It's a crazy-controversial program to give Federal money to "faith-based" community organizations. Now I have nothing against faith, but I do have a lot against the Faith-Based Initiative, because 1) the money seems to be going to Christian organizations to the exclusion of other faiths; 2) this is one more way for the Administration to starve Federal and State programs of the money they need to serve the American public; and 3) separation of church and state, anyone?

This faith-based thing has had problems from the beginning, like directors who disagree publicly with President Bush and a totally inability to hold a director in place for more than a minute. Bush desperately needs some proof that his faith-based program works.

Do you get your daily fix from Starbucks? Well, before you get your next cup, beware!

Not only are they responsible for The Worst Song of All Time (WARNING: We Built this Starbucks (On Heart and Soul) is NOT for the weak of heart, the elderly or pregnant women!), but they're destroying this country with every foamed cup of caffeine goodness!

Yes, if you're a patron you might have noticed the current ad campaign they're running on the side of their cups - "The Way I See It".

The way Marty Mallet of North Richland Hills, TX "sees it", those little phrases on the side of your double-tall are responsible for gay marriage, Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction and the Dirty Sanchez (okay, maybe not that).

Mary Says:

"The way I see it, Starbucks is now pushing ever more than before toward the left and becoming more outspoken. It is making it clearer every day that it is increasingly for the destruction of family values and virtues....Now that Starbucks is declaring itself a moral and political spokesperson, it can get its money from liberals.