tacobell dog quicktime
Umm, not here.
Millwaukee Association of Jewish Education
That's not here, either.
moveon.org bush hitler download quicktime
Wrong, not here. Plus those two ads aren't going to be shown anywhere. They didn't make the cut. Get over it.
Gay pictures of Wesley Clark's feet
doubletake: WHAT THE HELL? Get off my property...
Bibles would be given to every public school student in California unless parents objected under a proposed ballot measure by an Orange County man.The official website for this ballot initiative is here.
The secretary of state's office gave the go-ahead Monday to Matt McLaughlin who will begin collecting signatures for the ballot initiative that would allow the use of the Bible as a textbook in literature classes.
McLaughlin must collect 598,105 valid signatures by May 24, according to Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's office.
Voters would then decide whether to amend the state's constitution authorizing the voluntary use of the Authorized or King James Version Bibles for classes in elementary, middle and high schools.
Arizona Republic
I'm shocked, SHOCKED, that this kind of thing is going on...
Right. Well, politics is politics, and the Dean campaign just hung its own behind out in the wind:
Another staffer indicated that in a survey of voters Monday by telephone, people expressed concern that "this guy (Dean) is indecisive" and Bradley, a former Hall of Fame player in the National Basketball Association and a three-term senator from New Jersey, could help counter that.So it's good to know that these specious attack memes on Clark have the full support, approval, and instigation of the Dean campaign. Wasn't Dean complaining about reining in these kind of attacks recently? This is regretable and lame.
"The Bradley message could be, like, (Dean) knew where he stood on the war, is still a Democrat, takes . . . positions, blah, blah, blah," the staffer said.
The next day, the speaker said, "surrogates" for Dean, both local and national, could "then hit Clark on the flip side of the argument: that he's indecisive, didn't know what party he's with, doesn't know his position on the war," she said.
The strategists ended their conversation when another reporter joined the conference, telling him, "I think you may have the wrong call-in number. This isn't a press call."
Arizona Republic | Dean called "new Democrat"
Uggabugga > The Era of Distortion
Uggabugga's got a great chart to examine before you read the Brooks article, and then links to the Howler and Josh Marshall. Go read those and then come back.
---
Okay, my turn. Back on Dec. 30, Josh Marshall linked to this great summary of tensions between Republican "realists" vs. the neoconservatives. Brook's article can then be seen as a way of taking down the neoconservatives a notch while also obscuring the Bush administration's previous reliance on neoconservative policy. The neoconservatives are now seen as a vunerability, and by minimizing their influence while associating criticism with anti-Semitism and conspiracy thinking, Brooks is setting up a two-front rhetorical defense.
He also uses a Dean quote as an example of a "dark accusation" concocted by an insular clique. This is a insidious way of associating Dean with anti-Semitism, which is riduculous.
His final line? "Welcome to election year 2004." This article stands as a clear sign of how much the dominant conservative media is willing to lie and distort the records. The ideological battle for America has begun.
Dean's religious accent
Skipping over the gratuitous shot at Clinton and Monica (oh, yeah), we move on to this incredible paragraph:
In the Globe interview, he said Southerners understand religious talk better than his fellow New Englanders. Yes, that "vast Unitarian wasteland of the Northeast," as Charles Colson has jokingly called it, is the latest target of Dean's regional stereotyping.Dean is guilty of regional stereotyping, but Colson is just joking. Colson's remark is actually a lot more offensive, isn't it? I guess you can't call this hypocrisy on Cal's part - it's more like ignorance.
"Christ was someone who sought out people who were disenfranchised," he told the Globe, "people who were left behind." Dean makes it sound as if Jesus might have been a Democrat.Jesus a Democrat? Well, that would mean his kingdom was of this world, wouldn't it? Cal seems to believe that Jesus would have been a Republican. In fact, from what I see in the Christian scriptures, Jesus told every political faction in Israel to go hang. Jesus wasn't concerned with it.
"He fought against self-righteousness of people who had everything," the candidate continued. "He was a person who set an extraordinary example that has lasted 2,000 years, which is pretty inspiring when you think about it."
Probe of Hill Leaks On 9/11 Is Intensified.
FBI Seeks Records From 17 Senators
Somebody leaked some information from a Senate subcommittee, and Bush's FBI swarmed the Senate. These bastards know what they did when they leaked Plame's name to Novak and the other six. Screw 'em.
Parents who bring squalling brats to R-rated movies
Circle I Limbo
Creationists
Circle II Whirling in a Dark & Stormy Wind
Scientologists
Circle III Mud, Rain, Cold, Hail & Snow
Republicans
Circle IV Rolling Weights
George Bush
Circle V Stuck in Mud, Mangled
River Styx
Rush Limbaugh
Circle VI Buried for Eternity
River Phlegyas
Saddam Hussein
Circle VII Burning Sands
Osama bin Laden
Circle IIX Immersed in Excrement
NAMBLA Members
Circle IX Frozen in Ice
Dogs For Joe
Lieberman is going after an entirely new demographic. I don't know whether this is cute or pathetic.
Democratic Underground > Dean on Civil Unions : The OITM Interview
(The following is my reproduced post from DU. This article was posted there decrying Dean's political calculations during Vermont's passage of civil unions.)
Read the whole article, please.
It's an open and honest look into the political and ethical thinking of Howard Dean. And it's not as bad as those few passages indicate, although I appreciate ZW's points. And I'm speaking as a Clark/ABB supporter.
There are no pictures of Gov. Dean signing civil unions legislation to appear in Republican advertisements. The Repukes can of course grab any picture of a signing Dean to use in its stead. But the political calculation in this approach is obvious.
Likewise, the statement about the Tom Lawson soccer tournament. If it had been a Enron official wanting to open a captive insurance company in Vermont, a staffer would have been sent to the games with a camera.
But let's consider the entire paragraph of the "uncomfortable" remark:
The truth is that it is the politics that made me uncomfortable. (Personally) I’m sure that I have the same hang-ups that lots of people have on the issue. But it is a matter of equity. I remain convinced that of the 50 percent of people who are opposed to this, that half of those are fundamentally decent human beings and this is just a vast change for them that they’ve never considered before. I consider those people people who will ultimately accept the equality of gays and lesbians and stop marginalizing them. Those are the people that I have to speak to.The Dean/civil unions issue is supposed to make Dean "unelectable" because Americans by and large are uncomfortable with gay marriage. But I think Dean is correct here - many have never considered such a vast change. They would do just as he says they would; they hold the potential to stop marginalizing gays and lesbians. The question is this: Can Dean articulate his position on civil unions to the "half" of the opposed 50% that will listen? Can he speak to them?
OITM: What role, if any, do you think homophobia played in the civil union debate?This is the crux of his message to that segment of the opposition who will listen. You can be a homophobe (fear of homosexuals) without being a bigot (someone who deliberately manifests mean-spirited unequal treatment of people because of who they are). There are a few levels to homophobia - it's not a light switch. People who have a slight degree of homophobia can have their fears allayed by knowledge.
Dean: I hesitate to use the word because many people confuse homophobia with bigotry. A bigot is someone who deliberately manifests mean-spirited unequal treatment of people because of who they are. It is very difficult to deal with bigotry except with the law. We live in a culture that is somewhat homophobic. Homosexuals become a lightning rod for all kinds of fears for things that have nothing to do with homosexuals. The reason for that is that, especially in men, sexuality is a terrible struggle. It takes some insight to understand that your own projections on a group of people have to do with your concerns about sexuality. Homophobia is widespread; bigotry is not. There are a lot of people who are homophobic but are not bigots. Those people can be brought into an understanding that everybody is a member of this community regardless of their sexual orientation.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My New Years resolution for the blog is to focus on the intersection of religion and politics. And so the Robertson story is a natural.
Pat's been deflecting hurricanes since 1985. His aim isn't so great, though. But being able to wrestle the mighty wind storms around seems to have gone to his head, and now the Almighty has let Pat in on a secret: It's Bush in 2004, by a landslide. Pat and W have had their disagreements in the past, especially when Robertson's illegal business deals are concerned. So it's good to see that Robertson has ended up on the side of the angels on this affair.
But Robertson has lied before. He claimed to be a "combat Marine" in his presidential campaign, a lie shot down by his fellow soldiers. He's lied about the separation of church and state in the Constitution, which he somehow never managed to read in law school. He's also advocated nuclear terrorism against the United States State Department.
So one more anti-American multi-millionare is stumping for Bush with his media empire. What vast right wing conspiracy? They're doing it out in the open for everyone to see!
Boston.com / News / Politics / Clark: Bush burning valuable military resources in Iraq
"George Bush thinks Americas best days are behind us. He has duplicated his father's war against Saddam Hussein and Ronald Reagan's tax cuts," Clark said. "He's even talking about John Kennedy's space program."Bang...zoom!
..."When I am President, I will go over to Iraq," Clark said. "And it won't be to deliver turkeys in the middle of the night."
Democratic Underground Forums - I just spoke to Joseph Wilson about the special prosecutor
At this thread, William Pitt talks about Joseph Wilson's reaction to the special prosecutor. Lancdem points out that we might not hear anything more about this "until something is going to break, like an indictment." It's a very good point.
WaPo
Special proscecutors. More investigators. It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of guys.
Howard Dean said Sunday that the hundreds of thousands of people drawn to politics by his campaign may stay home if he doesn't win the Democratic presidential nomination, dooming the Democratic Party in the fall campaign against President Bush.He's dead on here. Debra DeShong rejects this, saying Dem primary battles are all like this. Bull. The infamous Osama-Dean commercial comes to mind. There's been nothing in Democratic primary politics as publicly foul as that.
"If I don't win the nomination, where do you think those million and a half people, half a million on the Internet, where do you think they're going to go?" he said during a meeting with reporters. "I don't know where they're going to go. They're certainly not going to vote for a conventional Washington politician."
..."I think eventually the nomination is going to be won by somebody with a positive agenda," Dean said. "What's happening is, in their desperation, those guys have thrown their positive agenda out the window. I can't imagine it's going to help them. It might hurt us but it can't help them."
He added: "If we had strong leadership in the Democratic Party, it would be calling the other candidates and saying somebody has to win here. If (former Democratic National Committee head) Ron Brown were chairman, this wouldn't be happening."
General Wesley Clark for President - Official Campaign Web Site
The Clark website has redesigned its issues page, and it looks fantastic. You can choose your state from a map and see how Clark's plans will affect your region. You can download policy papers in PDF, or you can browse the various speeches and papers online. It's also tailored to specific American communities. Check it out.
Timothy Noah, Slate
Let's just think about the number of criminal investigations surrounding the Republicans-In-Charge. The steadfast way in which they maintain the circled wagons seems incredible to me. It's as if with one single breach, their entire criminal enterprise will crash to the ground.
The House bribery scandal has DeLay written all over it, don't you think?
"Imagine that," Barnett told Davenport. "You know, he used to have the most extraordinary interest in the people here in Kentucky. He could never get enough of my tales of Kentucky folk. He used to make me repeat family names like Barefoot and Boffin and Baggins, and good country names like that."The Shire is a place in the imagination, of course, but it's nice to know some of the influences on its construction in Tolkien's mind.
Out the window, Davenport said, he could see tobacco barns. And suddenly, the ways of the hobbits -- their country turns of phrase, their peculiar manners and their penchant for smoking -- came into focus. Davenport then conducted a little experiment and discovered something interesting: "Practically all the names of Tolkien's hobbits are listed in my Lexington phone book, and those that aren't can be found over in Shelbyville. Like as not, they cure pipe-weed for a living."
Yahoo! News - Educators Debate Efforts to Rename Schools
I grew up in Alabama and attended public schools, but the schools were all named after the community. First was Westside Elementary, on the west side of town. Then the elementary system was fully integrated in my fifth grade year (some African Americans lived on the west side and attended with us, but most were at US Jones Elementary across town). So for a year and a half, I attended US Jones. Then off to Demopolis Middle and High School (until the eleventh grade, when I headed off to Birmingham and the Alabama School of Fine Arts). So my community was less stubborn than others about the entire segregation question.
The high school in particular had integrated early on. I recall being told that several influential students remained in the public system when a white flight was threatened in Demopolis. They retained their friends and the public schools thrived.
We did have a white flight school, Demopolis Academy, and I attended the first grade there because I just missed the cutoff date being old enough for public schools. I can remember going to the 12th grade classroom before classes and reading to them from their textbooks. Perhaps I was a precocious little thing, but I wasn't reading at a 12th grade level by any means! Second grade took me straight to Westside, though I'm surprised that my "credits" transferred!
My personal feeling on all things Confederate is that these people should be honored by those who wish to honor them. I don't feel that need myself - they fought for their homes and their way of life, but both were maintained on the backs of slavery. Even those who had no slaves and fought for the South were fighting for an agrarian, slave-based economy. Still, they are the ancestors of many people in the South, and they deserve some respect for that, at least. But the schools would be better named after people who represent progress for the community, and not stagnation in the past.
There are plenty of African American leaders whose names could grace these buildings. Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth are just three names that come to mind. How about Helen Keller? Albert Einstein and Galileo are just as appropriate. Heck, I'd prefer to see Ronald Reagan's name replace every Confederate leader on a Southern school - at least they'd be updated.
But how to do it? Well, start talking about how it ought to be done. That's what's going on here, and the process will take care of itself.
Leaks Probe Is Gathering Momentum (washingtonpost.com)
The bad news is I was way off in my predicative calendar. I thought Rove would have been gone by now. Nope!
However, progress is being made.
The Justice Department has added a fourth prosecutor to the team investigating the leak of an undercover CIA officer's identity, while the FBI has said a grand jury may be called to take testimony from administration officials, sources close to the case said.The CIA thinks classified information is still being released on Wilson and Plame. There's a place for powerful people who are this cynical and unrepentant, and people get frogmarched there every day...
Administration and CIA officials said they have seen signs in the past few weeks that the investigation continues intensively behind closed doors, even though little about the investigation has been publicly said or seen for months.
RushLimbaugh.com
Rush says that his privacy has been invaded because the DA's office didn't follow the appropriate procedure in obtaining his medical records - they used a search warrant instead of a subpeona. Rush confidently posts the transcript of the hearing on his website, but the transcript reveals a lot of things.
If the state had used the subpeona route, they first would have had to inform Rush of this, and give him the opportunity of a hearing on the matter. However, as the State's Attorney James Martz points out, Rush may not be the only one under investigation. The pattern of issued prescriptions indicates not only doctor shopping, but negligence on the part of each doctor. Each doctor was supplying a bit too much for legal purposes apparently, and so the state went with the harder route of proving probable cause (rather than mere relevance) to obtain a search warrant. This would protect the records should a subpeona hearing for Rush tip off the offending doctors, and the records be altered or destroyed before the subpeona could be issued.
The search warrant process would have preserved Rush's privacy in the investigation concerning the doctors. Rush has filed an appeal and the records have been resealed (although Rush is hopping mad because the State "rifled" through them when they had the legal right to do so).
Extra bonus - Rush's take on Wilma Cline:
MR. BLACK: The question is, is there a compelling State interest to this particular investigation? And I want to go back even further in time. Wilma Cline is a person who is one of the major witnesses in this case who was a housekeeper at one time for Mr. Limbaugh in his Palm Beach house. He did a background check of her and didn't find out that her husband was a convicted drug trafficker because he was living under an assumed name and was a fugitive from a federal conviction. While cleaning his house, she found out, which was easy to discover, that he had undergone a number of these medical procedures; that they had been unsuccessful; that he had received more and more pain medication. She and her husband decided to take advantage of this by blackmailing and extorting money from Rush Limbaugh.Oh, the poor little Rushie. The mean old housekeeper found out he was addicted to the Oxy and blackmailed him over it.
Bernie got his shorts in a wad when Frank Rich used the term "homophobia"
Hehehehehe...Gotta love the Howler.
Clark's New Hampshire ad
It's a little bit Hollywood, but all the facts are true.
Dean's Iowa ad
Dean's use of the "I approve of this message" requirement is really good here. This ad could appear negative, but they do a good job of keeping the tone positive - always a plus in political advertising.
And did you notice that bat breaking? Dean asked for $360,000 in four days - he got it in two. Wow.
Still working on the AWOL Bush post. In the meantime, here are some of the Google searches that have led to this site in the last week.
Whose's running iraq
Who's teaching English out there?
link:www.netflix.com
Yes, I link to you - could that get me on the no-skipping-discs mailing list please?
frist poll "minority block"
Frist is my Senator. Good old Doctor Frist. Will he be the next silver-spooned chucklehead headlining the Republican ticket? You heard it here first.
take abb pledge chimp
If the Chimp would take the pledge, all our troubles would be over...
diebold voting machines snopes
The Snopes are running the Diebolds? No wonder this country is going to hell...
define forethought or malice
The Republicans in Florida, Election 2000.
dressing up games for christians
Hmmm. I don't recall Jesus advocating dressing up games. Sounds Pauline to me.
Michael Jackson (the Official Press Room)
I will win in court. Don't listen to what you're hearing in the press. That's all I'm allowed to say.
Cat In The Hat Takes Top Box Office Spot
"We pitched it almost as a kid's version of Ferris Bueller's Day Off," Mandel said. "The book is a very perfect beginning, middle and end. We used it as a skeleton: Mom has to go out, kids are left home, cat comes to visit, house gets messed up, they kick out the cat, they clean it up, and get everything done before mom comes home."For all you "Seuss purists" out there, the cat returns with his incredible cleaning machine and cleans everything in the house in the nick of time. The Cat in the Hat is an expression of the unleashed imagination, and there's no harm ever in unleashing your imagination. That's the point which Mandel has missed in this recap of the story.
"Kids are pretty much afraid of the Grinch, but you want them to like the Cat," he said. "Because, if you think about it, this is just a home-invasion story about a giant crazy cat who barges into the house and wrecks the place."Boy, aren't you ready to line up for that one? Bleah.
Grazer already has his writers working on a sequel.
"The sad thing is we took some things from The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, and now we have to write that," screenwriter Berg said. "There's not much left in that one other than the title now."
