Demonizing gays: beyond hypocrisy to pathology

i wish to hell the nyt hadn't tucked folks like frank rich behind their friggin' firewall... frank rich, like paul krugman, bob herbert, and maureen dowd, should be shared with the american public... (they can keep brooks and tierney behind the goddam firewall...)

If anything good has come out of the Foley scandal, it is surely this: The revelation that the political party fond of demonizing homosexuals each election year is as well-stocked with trusted and accomplished gay leaders as virtually every other power center in America.

[...]

The split between the Republicans' outward homophobia and inner gayness isn't just hypocrisy; it's pathology.

yes, on one level, it is certainly pathological to spew hatred and intolerance at yourSELF, fercryinoutloud, but it is also the depth of unconscionable tactics to manipulate the american public with that same hatred and intolerance... in the long run, they will all get what they justly deserve... however, as john maynard keynes said, in the long run, we're all dead...

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No matter how strong the storm

please note... this was in the casper star tribune, dick cheney's hometown newspaper... i hope he sees it, although i doubt ordinary human emotions have much effect on his dark soul...

Thousands of posters and billboards dot Baghdad with messages of hope for a city of gloom, where residents largely stay home, afraid of the streets, their pain and grief deepening every day amid unending violence.

"No matter how strong the storm, it will go away in the end," declares the message on one poster, with a picture of a worried young woman clasping a boy to her body, her hand protectively placed over his head, her hair fluttering in the wind.

yes, i bitch loud and long about what's happening in MY country, but, let me not ever, EVER, EVER forget that it is MY country that has made life a living hell on earth for iraqis, people who want nothing more than what i want, what we ALL want - a life of peace that we can live as we choose, caring for our loved ones and families, and being treated as human beings with dignity and respect...

(thanks to georgia10 at daily kos...)

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Yeah, yeah, I'm taking off in the morning

but, in the meantime, i've got to torment you with another sunset pic... check this out...



a big thunderstorm rolled through early this morning, and, by 7 a.m., it was pouring... it called it quits about 10:30 and it has taken the rest of the day for the remnants to blow on by... as i've seen several times here in buenos aires, the evening after a storm will often produce the most fantastic sunsets, the kind that almost make your hair stand on end, they're so beautiful... this shot was taken out my front door at about 7 p.m. this evening...

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Gettin' outta Dodge (fer a while, anyway)

this past wednesday, i posted about needing a break from my obsession with the slow-motion train wreck that's consuming my country... you would think that being over 6000 miles away would be enough, but, as we all know, broadband internet ain't just for breakfast any more... besides, i do feel an obligation to this weblog, not because of my vast readership, but because i believe that putting out the truth, even if it's only for me, is something all of us are obligated to do in this world... still, when the smell of burning insulation fills the air, it's time to pay attention...

i am headed to far nw argentina, specifically the city of salta, for a week... i've only visited one other area of the country so far - bariloche - and i'm eager to see more... salta's nickname in argentina is salta la linda - salta the beautiful - and it's supposed to be a special place... even more special will be sharing it with friends, one of whose mother lives there, and, as i understand it, mom makes killer tamales...! :)

the red asterisks on the map indicate the three places i will have under my belt at the conclusion of this trip... the distance to salta is approximately 1500km, about the same distance as to bariloche, and, as with bariloche, this will be a driving trip...

having said all this, i do expect to be making occasional posts, and, yes, i AM taking my laptop... after all, i'm just taking a break, not entering re-hab...!



yes, argentina is a BIG country... 7th largest in the world, in fact... and, yes, there WILL be pictures...

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Yeah, that's about the way I see things too...

jay elias at daily kos posted this diary, entitled "so very tired..."

I wish that the people who get paid to report the news and inform the public did their jobs well enough that there was nothing new I could tell anyone. I wish the political left in this country was less arrogant and the political right less retarded. I wish all of us, myself included, were quite a bit more humble. I wish that I didn't have the feeling I have before every election which is that I understand the game and how it has to be played; I just can't believe we're all stuck playing such a stupid fucking game.

[...]

So in a few weeks, I'm going to drag my ass out of bed even earlier on a Tuesday morning, and bring myself over to the local community center where Narcotics Anonymous has its Tuesday meetings and I'll vote, which any economist will tell me doesn't really make any difference because the odds of any election being actually competitive where I live is statistically meaningless. And I'll still feel a little good about that, in spite of having little affection for the vast majority of people I'll be voting for, if for no other reason than because far better people than I have fought and died for this simple right.

[...]

And no matter what happens with the results of that election, not that much will change. Our kids in our cities still won't learn as well as they should, and we'll all still owe several trillion dollars to the Chinese.

[...]

The stakes are astronomically high, and the game we're playing for them is so retarded, I feel like I'm trapped in an episode of Deal or No Deal. It is all I can do to remember that I want the prize more than I want Howie Mandel just to shut the fuck up.

i sent off my absentee ballot on wednesday and, as much as i don't like to do it, i voted a straight party ticket... there's a lot on the dem side that gives me heartburn but nothing compared to the r's making my head explode... with mere weeks to go, my thoughts turn more and more often to wondering about the october surprise...

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A Saturn eclipse

(from skytonight.com via raw story...)

On September 15th, the Saturn orbiter [NASA's Cassini spacecraft] found itself in a rare position — deep within a Saturnian eclipse. For about 12 hours the craft observed the ringed world from within the planet's shadow. In the unique image at right, the Sun is directly behind Saturn and the rings shine in scattered, rather than reflected, light. From this point of view small particles in the rings appear especially bright, much the way that cobwebs look brighter when lit from behind.

is that cool or what...?

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Cue the public outcry...! (crickets chirping)

Congressman Pleads Guilty
but Won't Resign for Now

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General Motors answer to using Sean Hannity as a spokesman

i recognize corporate boilerplate when i see it... god knows, i've written enough of it myself...

----- Original Message ----
From: gm.other@gmexpert.com
To:
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 12:40:24 PM
Subject: RE: Advertisement Concern


Dear Mr. ,

Thank you for your feedback and comments.

GM is a prominent advertiser in America and to tell our story we advertise across a tremendously wide array of media trying to connect with all customers irrespective of ethnic, religious or political affiliations.

The current promotion on Sean Hannity’s program is not intended to create controversy or support for any political view. Rather, it is designed to generate interest in our world-class lineup of vehicles. Sean Hannity has not been hired as a spokesperson nor is he receiving compensation from GM.

Again, we appreciate your views and thank you for taking the time to contact us.

Sincerely,

General Motors Executive Customer Assistance

my response, which will not make it past the first "delete" button...

Dear Colleague,

Whether or not Mr. Hannity has been hired by General Motors or is receiving compensation from General Motors is beside the point. There is no way that Mr.Hannity can AVOID representing a particular political point of view regardless of the context in which he appears, since he has made it perfectly clear to all and sundry precisely what point of view he subscribes to. Associating GM with Hannity's name, much less his person, speaks volumes about either the lack of sensitivity of GM to the situation in today's United States or GM's intention to communicate its own viewpoint on American politics to the American public by associating itself with Sean Hannity. Either way, it's a foolish p.r. move by a company who doesn't need any more tarnish on its corporate image. Would you let Michael Moore represent you? How about Jon Stewart? I didn't think so.

Sincerely,

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Oh, Denny, Denny, Denny

whatever will we do with you...?

Foley aide testifies: I told Hastert years ago

They were talking sex again on Capitol Hill as one of the key witnesses in the Mark Foley page-boy scandal testified Thursday before the House ethics committee.

Kirk Fordham, once Foley's chief of staff, detailed under oath his contention that he warned House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office about Foley's interest in boys years ago.

the raw story headline kinda says it all, doesn't it...? give it up, denny... i know you've got bush on your side, but, let's get real... bush ain't exactly an asset these days...

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Latin America round-up

for those of you interested in latin america (as i am, particularly because i live here part-time), joshua holland has a good overview and some perspectives on the current lay of the land in latin america over at alternet, with a particular focus on hugo chavez and venezuela...

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For Bush (and all dry drunks), reality is unacceptable

if this wasn't so pathetic and didn't exert an extremely negative impact on so many hundreds of millions of people, it would be totally hysterical...

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.

Bush's decision to lay down blunt new markers about the things he deems intolerable comes at an odd time, a phase of his presidency in which all manner of circumstances are not bending to his will: national security setbacks in North Korea and Iraq, a Congress that has shrugged its shoulders at his top domestic initiatives, a favorability rating mired below 40 percent.

and, guess what...? it's getting worse... a LOT worse...

But a survey of transcripts from Bush's public remarks over the past seven years shows the president's worsening political predicament has actually stoked, rather than diminished, his desire to proclaim what he cannot abide. Some presidential scholars and psychologists describe the trend as a signpost of Bush's rising frustration with his declining influence.

In the first nine months of this year, Bush declared more than twice as many events or outcomes "unacceptable" or "not acceptable" as he did in all of 2005, and nearly four times as many as he did in 2004. He is, in fact, at a presidential career high in denouncing events he considers intolerable. They number 37 so far this year, as opposed to five in 2003, 18 in 2002 and 14 in 2001.

yes, it's a signpost of his rising frustration... to me, it's also a signpost for inner rage that threatens to erupt whenever an addict (in this case, a dry drunk) has his bubble of denial threatened...

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RAT-zinger continues to turn back the clock

remember shortly after he became pope, he worked his ass off trying to appear compassionate, benevolent, and, well, LIKEABLE...? the moniker of "god's rottweiler" clearly wasn't how he wanted to be seen by the masses... then the slur on islam snuck out, and now this... as they say, you can bleach the stripes on a tiger, but...... meet the REAL joseph ratzinger...

Pope Benedict XVI has drafted a document allowing wider use of the Tridentine Mass, the Latin rite that was largely replaced in the 1960s by Masses in English and other modern languages, a church official said yesterday.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the pope told colleagues in September that he was writing the document "motu proprio," a Latin phrase for on his own initiative, and that it was in its third draft.

"There will be a document, it will come out soon, and it will be significant," the official said. Benedict "will not let this be sidetracked," he added.

in my far-distant youth, i spent several years as an altar boy (keep the cracks to yourself, please) and, even though my early catholicism is now several lifetimes removed, i would be lying if i didn't say i didn't still have a soft spot for the latin mass... but... that was then and this is now...

as an aside... if you got him really drunk, a la mel gibson, i wonder what he'd say... just askin'...

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Good for the ICRC, and I bet they got THEIR ears filled

this visit badly needed to happen, and, if the united states wasn't so intent on behaving like a rogue, outlaw state, it would have happened a long time ago...

An International Committee of the Red Cross delegation that visited the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, met with the 14 detainees who had been held for years in secret CIA custody, the first time the alleged high-value terrorism suspects had contact with the outside world since their initial confinement.

The U.S. military and ICRC officials confirmed yesterday that Red Cross representatives spent time with each of the 14 men in the weeks after they were transferred to Guantanamo, a series of standard meetings during which the detainees were officially registered with the international humanitarian organization and had an opportunity to meet with a doctor.

let's see the administration spin this one into a scenario of "respecting human rights and international conventions" cuz you know they will...

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I'm glad to see the Abramoff mess back in the headlines

but what i REALLY want to see is ALL of the pieces put together...

Five conservative nonprofit organizations, including one run by prominent Republican Grover Norquist, "appear to have perpetrated a fraud" on taxpayers by selling their clout to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Senate investigators said in a report issued yesterday.

The report includes previously unreleased e-mails between the now-disgraced lobbyist and officers of the nonprofit groups, showing that Abramoff funneled money from his clients to the groups. In exchange, the groups, among other things, produced ostensibly independent newspaper op-ed columns or news releases that favored the clients' positions.

Abramoff, the once-powerful lobbyist at the center of a wide-ranging public corruption investigation, was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison on March 29, after pleading guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials in a deal that required him to provide evidence about members of Congress.

Officers of the groups "were generally available to carry out Mr. Abramoff's requests for help with his clients in exchange for cash payments," said the report, issued by the Senate Finance Committee.

let's see if we can lay out some of the bigger-name pieces... i'll probably miss some, but, what the hey...

abramoff
delay
cunningham
pombo
hastert
boehner
rove
ralston
foley
kolbe
foggo
goss
mcclellan
gannon
mehlman
norquist
ney
noe
burns
rubin

you just know, they've ALL got to fit together somehow... couldn't we see some REAL investigative reporting...? PLEASE...?

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UK Army Chief blindsides Blair on Iraq but will it cross the pond?

as the bbc commentator said, this is "quite extraordinary..."

The head of the British Army has said the presence of UK armed forces in Iraq "exacerbates the security problems".

In an interview in the Daily Mail, Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, is quoted as saying the British should "get out some time soon".

He also said: "Let's face it, the military campaign we fought in 2003, effectively kicked the door in."

There are currently more than 7,000 British soldiers in Iraq, based largely in Basra in the south of the country.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said Britain had "a clear strategy" and worked with international partners "in support of the democratically elected government of Iraq, under a clear UN mandate."

BBC political editor Nick Robinson described Sir Richard's remarks as "quite extraordinary".

just as extraordinary as if one of the u.s. joint chiefs of staff came out and said the same thing... let's see how this crosses the pond...

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Why wouldn't a Cheney endorsement be the kiss of death?

inquiring minds want to know...

With less than a month to go before the elections, Vice President Dick Cheney offered up strong words of praise for Joe Lieberman, while taking shots at the "Dean Democrats" who have "purged" the Connecticut senator from the Democratic Party.

"The case of Joe Lieberman is a perfect illustration of the basic philosophical difference between the two parties in the year 2006," Cheney said at a Topeka, Kansas fundraiser for Rep. Jim Ryan on Thursday afternoon. "And it's a reminder that the elections on November 7th will have enormous consequences for this nation, one way or the other."

i don't wish anyone ill, even dick cheney... my hope for dr. evil is that, somehow, some way, before he dies, he has to come face-to-face with the full magnitude of his darkness, and sees just how twisted a human being he is...

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I have a hunch there's another reason Rove wanted Foley to run again

and why foley agreed...

i have nothing whatsoever to back this up other than gut intuition and the rumor mill, but i believe rove runs in the same sexual predator circles as foley does... with foley still in the house, rove still could maintain a measure of control over him... likewise, foley, who certainly could have stuck with his decision to get out, stayed on because of what rove knows about him and, of course, what foley knows about rove...

yeah, i know it's dark and cynical, but i wouldn't doubt for a second that it could turn out to be true...

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Does anybody REALLY believe I could be a two-faced, calculating liar...?

< ponders, scratches head, rubs chin > ummmmmmmm... lemme think... well, yes... i do think that's a very strong possibility...

Early Thursday morning, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied that she gave the "brush-off" to an "impending terrorist attack" warning by former C.I.A. director George J. Tenet and his counterterrorism coordinator in July of 2001, two months before the September 11 attacks, which was first reported in Washington Post investigative reporter's Bob Woodward's latest book State of Denial.

The former National Security Adviser, interviewed on Detroit's Paul Smith Show on WJRI Radio, said that the "assertion that [she] would hear about a specific attack and not do anything" is "obviously just not true."

"On July 10, 2001, the book says, Mr. Tenet and his counterterrorism chief, J. Cofer Black, met with Ms. Rice at the White House to impress upon her the seriousness of the intelligence the agency was collecting about an impending attack," David E. Sanger reported for the New York Times in September. "But both men came away from the meeting feeling that Ms. Rice had not taken the warnings seriously."

On the radio, Rice asked rhetorically, "Does anybody really believe that somebody would have walked into my office and said, oh, by the way, there's a chance of a major attack against the United States and I would have said, well, I'm really not interested in that information?"

"I mean, it's just ridiculous," said Rice.

c'mon, condi... get a friggin' CLUE, will ya... fercryinoutloud... after nearly six years of lies, does ANYBODY really think that ANYBODY in the bush administration tells the truth...?

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Jose Padilla

welcome to bushworld and the united states of amerika...

MOTION TO DISMISS FOR OUTRAGEOUS GOVERNMENT CONDUCT

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BREAKING: Family Research Council and Focus on the Family condemn gay marriage in the animal kingdom

those gay whales are going to burn in hell...

With documentation of gay or lesbian behavior among giraffes, penguins, parrots, beetles, whales and dozens of other creatures, the Oslo Natural History Museum concludes human homosexuality cannot be viewed as "unnatural".

"We may have opinions on a lot of things, but one thing is clear -- homosexuality is found throughout the animal kingdom, it is not against nature," an exhibit statement said.

Geir Soeli, the project leader of the exhibition entitled "Against Nature", told Reuters: "Homosexuality has been observed for more than 1,500 animal species, and is well documented for 500 of them."

The museum said the exhibition, opening on Thursday despite condemnation from some Christians, was the first in the world on the subject. Soeli said a Dutch zoo had once organised tours to view homosexual couples among the animals.

"The sexual urge is strong in all animals. ... It's a part of life, it's fun to have sex," Soeli said of the reasons for homosexuality or bisexuality among animals.

that last line is my favorite and will probably cause a number of wingnut heads to explode...

meanwhile, consider this mind-expanding description of those despicable gay whales...

One photograph shows two giant erect penises flailing above the water as two male right whales rub together.

but, predictably...

One radical Christian said organizers of the exhibition -- partly funded by the Norwegian government -- should "burn in hell", Soeli said. Laws describing homosexuality as a "crime against nature" are still on the statutes in some countries.

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The R's equal-opportunity exploitation: standing-room only

are you gay and feel like you're being used as a political campaign tool...? are you a deeply religious, conservative christian with hopes for restoring christianity in the united states...? do you belong to or identify with any group who has either been demonized or co-opted in order to gain votes for and insure the republican monopoly of the u.s. government...? i'd ask you to take a seat there on the right, but, unfortunately, it's sro...

“National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as ‘ridiculous,’ ‘out of control,’ and just plain ‘goofy,’” Kuo writes. [David Kuo served as special assistant to the president from 2001 to 2003 and is the former second-in-command of the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives.]

More seriously, Kuo alleges that then-White House political affairs director Ken Mehlman knowingly participated in a scheme to use the office, and taxpayer funds, to mount ostensibly “nonpartisan” events that were, in reality, designed with the intent of mobilizing religious voters in 20 targeted races.

According to Kuo, “Ken loved the idea and gave us our marching orders.”

Among those marching orders, Kuo says, was Mehlman’s mandate to conceal the true nature of the events.

Kuo quotes Mehlman as saying, “… (I)t can’t come from the campaigns. That would make it look too political. It needs to come from the congressional offices. We’ll take care of that by having our guys call the office [of faith-based initiatives] to request the visit.”

Nineteen out of the 20 targeted races were won by Republicans, Kuo reports. The outreach was so extensive and so powerful in motivating not just conservative evangelicals, but also traditionally Democratic minorities, that Kuo attributes Bush’s 2004 Ohio victory “at least partially … to the conferences we had launched two years before.”

and look who had this to say...

[S]ome of the nation’s most prominent evangelical leaders were known in the office of presidential political strategist Karl Rove as “the nuts.”

the R's will exploit anybody without regard to race, creed, or color...

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And yer point is...?

it takes robert parry the space of a fairly lengthy article to get down to it, but, get down to it he does - finally...

[T]he greatest danger from Bush's delusions is that they will come to supplant any American notion of reality and spell the doom of the United States as a democratic Republic based on an informed electorate.

imho, this sad state of affairs has, by and large, already come to pass...

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Support based solely on personal and party loyalty and political calculation

the nyt headline says it all...

As the Foley Case Unfolds, Hastert Gets a More Enthusiastic Nod From Bush

as things continue to look increasingly bad for denny, george is forced to draw a tighter bead on just exactly WHY he supports him... the result...? do you have to ask...?

Early last week, President Bush said he respected J. Dennis Hastert as a father, a teacher and a coach — but did not say what he thought of him as House speaker.

Two days later, amid continuing calls for Mr. Hastert to resign as speaker over the Mark Foley e-mail scandal, Mr. Bush expressed more direct support for Mr. Hastert, but only through aides.

This week, Mr. Bush is giving Mr. Hastert a more unmistakable embrace, telling reporters on Wednesday: “Denny is very credible, as far as I’m concerned. And he’s done a fine job as speaker.”

The president is expected go one step further on Thursday, when he is scheduled to appear side-by-side with Mr. Hastert at a Republican rally in Chicago.

Aides to both men said Mr. Bush’s ever-friendlier declarations of support were one part political calculus, one part personal loyalty. The White House has made clear it agrees with Republican leaders in Congress that Mr. Hastert’s resignation would only prompt Democrats to demand more scalps in the imbroglio over what Congressional Republicans knew when about Mr. Foley’s risqué e-mails to male pages.

But, aides said, it also reflects Mr. Bush’s belief that Mr. Hastert has by and large been a loyal supporter who has come through for him at crucial moments...

not that this is news to anyone, but george's support has absolutely NOTHING to do with right, wrong, morals, ethics, integrity, honesty, or child protection... NOTHING... in fact, the nyt headline says it all...

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Something to rue as well as hail

say WHAT...? is this one of those good news/bad news stories or is it merely an unintentional embarrassment...? check the teaser for this story in today's nyt email headlines...

States Are Growing More Lenient in Allowing Felons to Vote
By ERIK ECKHOLM

The trend toward loosened voting restrictions for felons is
hailed by some rights advocates as a step toward democratic
principles, especially for black Americans.

"hailed...?" what exactly is it that should be "hailed...?" that more black americans get to vote or that we throw black americans in the slammer in vastly higher numbers than the rest of the population...? at least the nyt has the good sense to acknowledge the issue, although not the percentage of the 5.3M prison population that's black...

Because of their high incarceration rate, blacks are most affected by the voting bans that vary widely among the states, with many barring current inmates and parolees from voting until they have fulfilled their sentences, and some barring felons for life.

In recent years, Iowa, Nebraska and New Mexico have repealed their lifetime bans on voting by people who have been convicted of felonies, and several other states made it easier for freed prisoners or those on probation to vote, according to the report, issued yesterday by the Sentencing Project, a liberal advocacy group in Washington.

The recent changes have restored voting rights to more than 600,000 individuals, the report said. But because the country’s prison population has continued to rise, a record number of Americans, 5.3 million, are still denied the vote because of criminal records, it concluded.

here's what they SHOULD have bothered to mention...

According to new data from the U.S. Department of Justice, one in 136 Americans is behind bars today, including an astounding 12 percent of all black men between the ages of 25 and 29. The United States represents 4.6 percent of the world's population, but houses nearly 23 percent of humanity's prison population.

the irony of the story is that our democracy (what's left of it, that is) is suffering because so many people are denied the vote... absolutely shameful...!

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Burnin' out...!

this afternoon was one of those spectacular afternoons that are a regular feature of argentina and buenos aires... there's something about the intensity and quality of the light and the brilliance of the blue sky that is almost indescribable... i walked through some neighborhoods, lay in the grass in one park, sat for a while in another, people-watched, and generally let the sun shine through the gloom engendered by following world events, particularly those in my home country...

i realized that, as much as i am dedicated to putting the truth out there, i can smell my own insulation burning... it's time to pull back a bit... i'm certainly not going to stop blogging, but i may take some time away or at least reduce the narrowness of my focus for a while... i'm thinking of taking a long drive to the northwest part of the country, up by the bolivian border, supposedly home to spectacular rock formations, canyons, and arizona/utah-like landscapes... sound good...? i think so... anyway, i'll let you know what i decide to do...

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Get your fear on (latest edition)

this would have been a tragic story under any circumstances, but then come the sinister overtones...

Four people have died after a small aircraft crashed into a high-rise apartment building in New York City's affluent Upper East Side.

The plane was owned by New York Yankees baseball pitcher Cory Lidle. US Media reports say he was piloting the plane at the time and died in the crash.

Flames and smoke can be seen coming out of the 50-storey apartment building on Manhattan island.

The FBI says there is no indication that the crash is terrorism-related.

A White House spokesman said they were not ruling out any theory.

As a precaution, fighter planes are now flying over a number of US cities.

where were the fighter planes on 9/11...? just askin'...

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"A lot of innocent people have lost their life [sic]"

besides being inarticulate, the man is the biggest enemy of my country... if i had a magic wand, i would wave it and he would be whisked off to the farthest reaches of the antarctic, where he would spend the rest of his life in a comfortably heated metal box, living on gruel...

In a Rose Garden press conference, President Bush blasted a new study that estimates 655,000 Iraqis died because of the war since March of 2003 as "just not credible."

Bush also spoke at length about North Korea, defending his record in contrast to that of the Clinton Administration, and commented on the Mark Foley Congressional page scandal.

The President wouldn't provide a figure for overall fatalities in Iraq to counter the study, but conceded that "a lot of innocent people have lost their life."

He also called for stiff sanctions against North Korea for its reported nuclear test, but indicated that the United States has "no intention of attacking."

The conference became contentious, at times, as reporters pressed him to admit fault in his own dealings with North Korea, which has insisted on one-on-one talks over the U.S.-preferred multi-lateral negotiations. President Bush defended his record, in part by suggesting that previous administration attempts to hold direct talks with North Korea "didn't work."

"It didn't work in the past," said Bush. "I learned a lesson from that."

"You have a better diplomatic hand with others sending the message," Bush added.

i am well over 6000 miles away from the man and he still can make me scream in frustration... just watching him makes my skin crawl... how, please tell me, can we possibly withstand having him continue in office until 20 january 2009...? i can't bear it any more...

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Why do extremist talking-point robot whackjobs keep getting airtime?

since when did focus on the family become the great arbiter of u.s. public opinion...?

Republicans did not respond to early warnings in the Foley scandal because "liberals treasure homosexuality," according to a conservative family activist.

"[M]ore and more, homosexuality is something that liberal politicians and the Hollywood set prizes," said Tom Minnery, Vice President of Public Policy for Focus on the Family.

"I suspect," Minnery continued, speaking to CNN's Kyra Phillips, "that may be why the Republican leadership did not act faster to clamp down on Mark Foley."

"treasure" homosexuality...? WTF...?!?! if liberals "treasure" anything, it's the great richness of the human condition and knowing that loving and wonderful people can be found everywhere, in every size, color, and orientation, but the day that gays, in particular, become "treasured" is a day i doubt i will live to see... it sounds about as mindlessly dumb as saying that focus on the family "treasures" heterosexuality... what...? oops... never mind...

ar·bi·ter
Pronunciation: 'är-b&-t&r
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English arbitre, from Anglo-French, from Latin arbitr-, arbiter
1 : a person with power to decide a dispute : JUDGE
2 : a person or agency whose judgment or opinion is considered authoritative

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Don't mess with CREW

they fight back, unlike some others i won't bother to mention here...

raw story has the details...

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Slowly but surely, the rest of this is going to come out

john at americablog has some very interesting, very fresh info (here and here) that raises some VERY INTERESTING questions... i'm tellin' ya, this is one goddam big iceberg and we don't know the HALF of it yet...

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Mel tries to repair the damage

in my dark, dark past, there was a time or two when i've been at least as shit-faced as mel was when that vitriol spilled out of his mouth...

Mel Gibson: It was just the stupid rambling of a drunkard, you know and … what I need to do to heal myself and to be assuring and allay the fears of others and to heal them if they had any heart wounds from something I may have said. So, this is the last thing I want to be is that kind of monster.

ya know what...? some of the crap that spilled out of MY mouth back then was the very stuff that i held buried deep inside me, and, with my tongue sufficiently loosened by alcohol, out it came... the ugliness that you vomited all over that poor cop, mel, is the very stuff that lies deep within YOU... "stupid rambling of a drunkard" just don't cut it... sorry, mel... now that the REAL YOU popped out of the box, it's impossible to stuff it back in...

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Here there be dragons

(thanks to john at americablog who quotes from the laughably-named, accuracy in media website...)

seriously, you can't make up shit like this, and i am at a complete loss to understand how someone's brain functions to come up with it...

...secret Republican homosexuals are working behind-the-scenes to sabotage a conservative pro-family agenda in the Congress...

[...]

For the sake of honest and open government, not to mention protection of the children, the secret Capitol Hill homosexual network must be exposed and dismantled.

it's like those medieval map-makers who, when they tried to map in unexplored areas, simply put, "here there be dragons..."

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A nuclear-armed North Korea isn't exactly an "unintended consequence"

in the lead-in to his article on the north korea nuclear test story, robert parry says this...

Even before 9/11, George W. Bush was talking tough to North Korea, letting the communist dictatorship know it was near the top of his list for regime change. But Bush's harsh rhetoric and threatening actions -- especially in the context of the 2003 invasion of Iraq -- sent North Korea off in a hasty pursuit of nuclear weapons, an unintended consequence that is provoking a new crisis.

i'm sorry, but i don't believe for one minute that the consequence was wholly "unintended..." a nuclear-armed north korea plays right in to bushco's agenda to further inflame global chaos which, in turn, creates the very conditions that perpetuate the endless war bushco so desperately desires... if i'm right, it's all going precisely according to plan...

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Denny's press conference

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...! you stepped on your you-know-what THIS time, denny...

Hastert indicated repeatedly that anyone – including people in his own staff – who knew about the Foley messages and did not report them should be fired. He also denied claims that he himself knew about Foley's messages to former pages long before the scandal broke.

now, we get to sit back and watch the REST of this badly written b-movie play out...

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"Pure contempt" for evangelicals

this has been widely posted, but it's a keeper...

(video here...)

Tucker Carlson: The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power. [...] I know that everybody in our world has contempt for the evangelicals. [...] [T]he base is beginning to figure it out.

for one thing, why the hell it's taken 'em so long to get a clue is beyond me... maybe because there are some genuine senior repub fundamentalist wingnuts out there - like george? - just to throw 'em off the trail... but, oh my, once they DO get the picture, LOOK OUT...! they're gonna have revenge on their mind, big-time...

(thanks to atrios via crooks and liars...)

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Get your fear on!

pump up the jam... we gotta be ready for the OCTOBER SURPRISE...!

A terminal at London's Heathrow airport was evacuated on Tuesday because of an unattended bag, police said.

this is from reuters and cnni just confirmed it in a breaking news bulletin... let's see if the unattended bag gets blown up as a precaution...

as a sidenote, if you've ever been through heathrow, you can imagine what a facking mess an evacuation would create... glad i ain't there...

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Hastert and Reynolds suddenly discover "family values?"

not bloody likely... as we used to say in the corporate world, the first rats off the sinking ship are usually the best swimmers...

House Speaker Dennis Hastert and another Republican leader criticized for his role in the congressional page scandal will not be appearing at fundraisers on behalf of a Pennsylvania congressman [Rep. Don Sherwood, R-Pa] who has admitted to an extramarital affair.

[...]

Jake O'Donnell, a spokesman for Sherwood, said Monday that an Oct. 18 event with Hastert was only tentatively scheduled and was canceled mostly because Sherwood had another major event the next day.

Pressure from Sherwood's Democratic opponent was a factor in the decision by Reynolds, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, not to appear at an event Thursday with Sherwood, O'Donnell said. A Republican campaign spokesman disputed that assertion and cited other events as the reason.

there's no such thing as "family values" with these jokers... it's ALL about politics...

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R's think they'll lose between 7 and 30 House seats

oh, they're gonna lose seats, all right, but from 7 to 30 is one hell of an odds spread...

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.

as much as i would LOVE to be optimistic, i'm resisting with every fiber of my being... why...? two simple words - karl rove...

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Why does this look like a deliberate attempt to exonerate Posada Carriles?

ok, call it my black cynicism, but i don't trust anything any more...

An anti-Castro militant now in a Texas jail warned the CIA months before the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that fellow exiles were planning such an attack, according to a newly released U.S. government document.

The document shows that Luis Posada Carriles — who had worked for the CIA but was cut off by the agency earlier that year — was secretly telling the CIA that his fellow far-right Cuban exiles opposed to Fidel Castro's communist government were plotting to bring down a commercial jet.

The document does not say what the CIA did with Posada's tip. A CIA spokesman said he had no comment on Monday, a federal holiday.

The CIA had extensive contacts with anti-Castro militants and trained some of them, but has denied involvement in the bombing.

the u.s. has been under fire for quite some time for harboring a terrorist... now, you'd think (wouldn't you?) that, if posada carriles had some info that would let him off the hook, he'd have come out with it a long time ago... sorry, but this just smells bad - really bad...

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The Axis of Evil goes big-time, embittering the wannabes

cool... george christened them and then made sure they could succeed...

Nearly five years after President Bush introduced the concept of an "axis of evil" comprising Iraq, Iran and North Korea, the administration has reached a crisis point with each nation: North Korea has claimed it conducted its first nuclear test, Iran refuses to halt its uranium-enrichment program, and Iraq appears to be tipping into a civil war 3 1/2 years after the U.S.-led invasion.

i'm reminded of this classic from john cleese that appeared shortly after bush made his "axis of evil" speech... (and, yes, it's a little dated, but definitely worth dragging out again...)

John Cleese on the Axis of Evil Wannabees

Bitter after being snubbed for membership in the "Axis of Evil," Libya, China and Syria today announced that they had formed the "Axis of Just as Evil," which they said would be more evil than the stupid Iran-Iraq-North Korea axis President Bush warned of in his State of the Union address.

Axis of Evil members, however, immediately dismissed the new Axis as having, for starters, a really dumb name. "Right. They are just as evil ... in their dreams!" declared North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. "Everybody knows we're the best evils ... best at being evil ... we're the best."

Diplomats from Syria denied that they were jealous over being excluded, though they conceded they did ask if they could join the Axis of Evil. "They told us it was full," said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "An axis can't have more than three countries," explained Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. "This is not my rule; it's tradition. In World War II you had Germany, Italy and Japan in the evil Axis. So, you can only have three, and a secret handshake. Ours is wickedly cool."

International reaction to Bush's Axis of Evil declaration was swift, as within minutes, France surrendered.

Elsewhere, peer-conscious nations rushed to gain triumvirate status in what has become a game of geopolitical chairs. Cuba, Sudan and Serbia announced that they had formed the "Axis of Somewhat Evil," forcing Somalia to join with Uganda and Myanmar in the "Axis of Occasionally Evil," while Bulgaria, Indonesia and Russia established the "Axis of Not So Much Evil Really as Just Generally Disagreeable."

With the criteria suddenly expanded and all the desirable clubs filling up, Sierra Leone, El Salvador and Rwanda applied to be called the "Axis of Countries That Aren't the Worst but Certainly Won't Be Asked to Host the Olympics."

Canada, Mexico and Australia formed the "Axis of Nations That Are Actually Quite Nice but Secretly Have Some Nasty Thoughts About America," while Scotland, New Zealand and Spain established the "Axis of Countries That Want Sheep to Wear Lipstick." "That's not a threat, really, just something we like to do," said Scottish Executive First Minister Jack McConnell.

While wondering if the other nations of the world weren't perhaps making fun of him, a cautious Bush granted approval for most axes, though he rejected the establishment of the "Axis of Countries Whose Names End in 'Guay,' " accusing one of its members of filing a false application. Officials from Paraguay, Uruguay and Chadguay denied the charges.

Israel, meanwhile, insisted it didn't want to join any Axis, but privately world leaders said that's only because no one asked them.

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Bah, humbug

yeah, it sounds great... in fact, it sounds just wonderful...

A new poll just revealed by CNN indicates that Republicans will have an uphill battle ahead of them in the 29 days before the midterm elections.

With 52% indicating they believe there was a deliberate cover-up of the Foley affair and an equal number reporting they believe Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) should resign, more Democrats are indicating that they are enthusiastic about voting than Republicans.

Most astonishing, however, is that while 58% of Democrats consider themselves likely to vote, just 44% of Republicans see themselves heading to the polls this November.

In all, the news agency is reporting that the Democratic lead among likely voters has nearly doubled--from 11 to 21 points in the last week.

but i flat out, friggin' REFUSE to allow myself to feel the tiniest bit optimistic... not with karl rove in the west wing... nosirreeee... which also reminds me, i need to get my absentee ballot in the mail this week...

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Don't look now, Condi, but I think your head is missing from your shoulders

every once in a while, somebody comes up behind you, and, with a sword so fine and sharp, cuts your head right off without you feeling a thing... condi probably won't even notice hers missing until she reads this...

It happens once every few months. Like a periodic visit by an especially annoying relative from overseas, Condoleezza Rice was here [Israel] again. The same declarations, the same texts devoid of content, the same sycophancy, the same official aircraft heading back to where it came from. The results were also the same: Israel promised in December, after a stormy night of discussions, to open the "safe passage" between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. This time, in what was considered the "achievement" of the current visit, Israel also promised to open the Karni crossing. Karni will be open, one can assume, only slightly more than the "safe passage," which never opened following the previous futile visit.

Rice has been here six times in the course of a year and a half, and what has come of it? Has anyone asked her about this? Does she ask herself?

It is hard to understand how the secretary of state allows herself to be so humiliated. It is even harder to understand how the superpower she represents allows itself to act in such a hollow and useless way. The mystery of America remains unsolved: How is it that the United States is doing nothing to advance a solution to the most dangerous and lengthiest conflict in our world? How is it that the world's only superpower, which has the power to quickly facilitate a solution, does not lift a finger to promote it?

well, golly... don't beat around the bush, mr. levy... tell us how you REALLY feel...

(from haaretz via steve clemons at the washington note...)

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Finally, the Cunningham sex scandal resurfaces

the irs seized the assets of an escort service that may have been used by a defense contractor to provide prostitutes for duke cunningham... it's a tentative link, to be sure, and, so far, nothing to link it to the foley mess... but, i swear, there's gotta be a ton o'shit lurking just below the surface... my guess is that a high proportion of congressmen, representatives and senators, republicans and democrats, have at one time or another availed themselves of sexual favors which were, in turn, used to obtain their votes and insure their silence...

Palfrey [the owner of the escort service] did speculate that she may have come to the attention of federal agents because her operation had somehow intersected with a more high profile case, like that of convicted ex-congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Investigators are reportedly examining charges that a defense contractor provided hookers to Cunningham as part of an influence-peddling scheme. Palfrey did not claim a nexis between her escort service and Cunningham, but invoked the disgraced pol's name while saying that she would wager that the basis for the federal probe of her business "had solely to do with some Duke Cunningham-type bigwig client that got caught up in something and started to say, 'Do you know this?' and 'Do you know that?' And that he might have been able to lead them to somebody."

if my hunch is right, it would go a LONG way toward explaining why our elected officials are all hoping this will go away... they never know if THEIR name is going to come up next...

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Does anybody else find this disturbing?

i had clicked on a wapo headline and the story had just come up when i realized that something had subliminally registered on the previous page... when i went back to the page, i saw this...



is THIS what our society is coming to...?

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I think George ain't somebody you wanna be around when his mood "blackens"

if we're lucky, we'll get to see him have another hissy fit in front of the cameras... now, THAT would be major cool... :)

Suddenly, like the fierce "blue northers" that sweep across Texas each autumn, the political winds have turned bleaker for Republicans - and President Bush's private mood has blackened accordingly.

Just two weeks ago, as gasoline prices plummeted and his tough-talking terror counterattack began moving poll numbers his way, Bush turned bullish on the November elections.

[...]

Bush has complained, ... sources said, that the scandal torpedoes furious GOP efforts to reenergize a dispirited political base - especially Christian conservatives.

"There's steam coming out of his ears over the Foley thing," someone who talks to the President regularly said. "The base is starting to get turned off again."

(thanks to joe at americablog via political wire...)

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British Airways price fixing - a symptom of a VASTLY larger problem

and that problem would be, you may ask...?

British Airways, which is being investigated by UK and US authorities for alleged price fixing of fuel surcharges, said on Monday its commercial director and head of communications had both resigned.

The firm said Commercial Director Martin George, who had been on a leave of absence since the investigation began in June, had written a letter to the company that there may have been inappropriate conversations in relation to the surcharges.

"I was not involved in such conversations. Although the board of BA have not found that I have behaved in a dishonest way, I fully recognize my responsibilities as head of department and as a board director," George said in the letter published in a statement by British Airways (BA).

BA said Iain Burns, head of communications, had also resigned.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) raided British Airways in June as part of a trans-atlantic investigation, conducted jointly with the US Department of Justice, into an alleged cartel over airfares and surcharges.

hey... no need for elaborate analysis and explanations... in a word, it's all about greed... money is what it's all about and never mind what you have to do to get it... british airways is just a cameo player in the global drama...

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Redaction/censorship is alive and well

keep in mind... this just happens to be a case that's hit the public eye... the vast majority probably don't...

When Gary Berntsen sat down for dinner last year with the CIA's executive director, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, the agency's No. 3 tried to talk him out of resigning from the National Clandestine Service. Foggo even offered him a university position as a placeholder until the CIA's new director, Porter J. Goss, could fix the broken personnel system and other issues that frustrated him, according to Berntsen.

But the Capital Grille meal quickly degenerated when Berntsen told Foggo that not only was he planning to resign but he intended to write a book about his experiences.

Foggo, according to Berntsen, stated flatly that Goss wanted no more books published by current or former CIA officials. Actually, according to a statement Berntsen filed last week in his ongoing lawsuit against the agency, Foggo's language was a little more colorful: "Mr. Foggo stated 'we will have no more books. I will redact censor the [expletive] out of your book so no one will want to read it.' "

yes, "censor" is my add... but, it does raise what i believe is the right question... what constitutes legitimate "redaction" and what constitutes outright censorship...?

re·dact
Pronunciation: ri-'dakt
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin redactus, past participle of redigere
1 : to put in writing : FRAME
2 : to select or adapt (as by obscuring or removing sensitive information) for publication or release; broadly : EDIT
3 : to obscure or remove (text) from a document prior to publication or release

censor
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): cen·sored; cen·sor·ing /'sen(t)-s&-ri[ng], 'sen(t)s-ri[ng]/
: to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable ; also : to suppress or delete as objectionable

hmmm... not as different as i thought... seems like the major difference is that one sounds almost respectable and the other doesn't...

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Is the NYT becoming shrill?

could be... kinda has that flavor, doesn't it...?

The wall builders have made their point, and it's a lousy one. Now it is time for those who want serious immigration reform to look beyond them.

i love the way atrios and the poor man have made that wonderful word shorthand for the mindset, outspokenness, and bold action we absolutely have to adopt if we're going to stop the wholesale destruction of our country...

What they have done cannot easily be undone, and they will never, ever get more than a tiny fraction of justice for it. Fuck them. Fuck them whether they are Democrats or Republicans, and fuck the liars and sycophants and cowardly pussies who insulate them from getting even a tiny taste of their just deserts. It’s awful, it’s unspeakably awful, and, actively or passively, we all participate.

Only shrillness can save America now.

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Abramoff and Foley - the NYT nails it

the nyt and the wapo seem to be on the same page...

The idea that disgraced former superlobbyist Jack Abramoff exerted no influence with the Bush administration seems about as believable as Mark Foley's claim that his only interest in 16-year-old pages was "mentoring."

but, hey, folks... we have the comforting reassurance of deputy white house press secretary dana perino that they "consider the matter closed..."

yeah... ok... whatever...

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Yes, but, does North Korea have OIL?

< yawns, stretches, shrugs >

sh-eeeee-it, li'l buddy, now if they had AWL, THEN you might wanna think about gettin' yer knickers in a twist...

North Korea faced a barrage of condemnation and calls for retaliation Monday after it announced that it had set off a small atomic weapon underground, a test that thrust the secretive communist state into the elite club of nuclear-armed nations.

no biggie... they've been workin' on it fer YEARS, and, besides, it was only a teeny one...

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In case you forgot, it's all about BUYING stuff

the REAL reason restrictions were relaxed for carry-on items...



Sign near the duty-free shop,
Terminal 2E, Charles de Gaulle
Airport, Paris, Saturday, 7 October

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Does Uncle Dick really think that cursing at somebody fixes anything?

truly, truly pathetic...

Today on Meet the Press, Bob Woodward described how Vice President Dick Cheney called him 10 days ago about Woodward’s new book State of Denial. Woodward says Cheney cursed at him (”he said what I was saying was bull-something”) and then hung up the phone.

Woodward called Cheney’s behavior a “metaphor for what’s going on. Hang up when somebody has a different point of view or information you don’t want to deal with.”

yeah, bob, but you didn't take the metaphor far enough... it ain't just about stuff you don't want to deal with... it's also about doing whatever you damn well please, all under the bogus banner of the "unitary executive" and the aumf... damn the congress, damn the courts, damn international agreements, damn diplomatic protocol, and, for sure, damn the united states constitution...

(thanks to think progress...)

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It ain't over until you-know-who sings

thereisnospoon at daily kos says...

If you believe the people at Time magazine, it's over. The goose is cooked. Stick a fork in it. The GOP is done, at least for now.

don't believe it... it ain't over 'til it's over...

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.

with george, dick, karl, and don firmly in place, with addington and hadley still bunkered in the west wing, with hastert and frist still holding forth, with mehlman still at the helm, we would be absolutely and totally foolish to even CONSIDER that the end is nigh...

i'm still waiting for the october surprise cuz, given rove's track record, it's likely to be a corker... i won't even BEGIN to feel optimistic until those people are NO LONGER in a position to damage my country...

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We KNEW this was gonna happen and it's a goddam shame

and your reward for fighting for the u.s. constitution...? c'mon DOWN...!

The Navy lawyer who took the Guantánamo case of Osama bin Laden's driver to the U.S. Supreme Court — and won — has been passed over for promotion by the Pentagon and must soon leave the military.

Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, 44, said last week he received word he had been denied a promotion to full-blown commander this summer, "about two weeks after" the Supreme Court sided against the White House and with his client, a Yemeni captive at the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.

our country is so far off the rails, it's not funny...

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Do you suppose Fred Hiatt and the WaPo are seeing the light?

i dunno... i sure hope so... this op-ed certainly doesn't fall into the category of sucking-up...

Remember when President Bush promised to restore honor and integrity to the Oval Office? He doesn't either, it would seem. A report by the House Government Reform Committee, based on three years of e-mails and billing records from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's former law firm, detailed how Mr. Abramoff and his team billed clients for hundreds of contacts with White House officials and dispensed coveted tickets to sporting events and concerts to favored officials, including adviser Karl Rove and Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, then the White House political director.

[...]

You might think a White House worried about honor and integrity would want to look more closely at Mr. Abramoff's dealings.

[...]

Not this White House, which has been resolutely incurious about Mr. Abramoff's activities and equally unwilling to provide information about it -- making it impossible to know how many of the reported contacts are classic Abramoff puffery and how many real.

[...]

A White House even a little concerned about honor and integrity might have managed to summon up a tiny hint of criticism -- not to mention a promise to make sure its employees behave in a way that befits the term public servant. A White House with nothing to hide would release information about Mr. Abramhoff's his meetings and contacts with its officials.

honor...? integrity...? LOLOLOLOL... you GOTTA be kidding...! no friggin' way... i defy anyone to name a time this white house has been concerned with honor and integrity...

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Thought for the day (and every day) - Dick Cheney is an evil, evil man

uncle dick is something else, and i suspect he may possibly be, in his own blackhearted way, right along with rummy, insane... i've often speculated on what the inside of his mind looks like... and, yes, i suppose it's time once again to drag out my feeble offering of what a grim picture it must be... (see below...)

Vice President Cheney sometimes starts speeches with a Ronald Reagan quotation about a "happy" nation needing "hope and faith." But not much happy talk follows. Not a lot of hope, either. He does, though, talk about the prospect of "mass death in the United States."

The not-so-happy warrior of the past two campaign cycles is back on the road delivering a grim message about danger, defeatism and the stakes of the coming election. If it is not a joyful exercise, it is at least a relentless one. Even with poll ratings lower than President Bush's, Cheney has become a more ubiquitous presence on the campaign trail than in the last midterm election.



Vice President Cheney, with Republican
congressional candidate Vern Buchanan,
singled out Democratic opposition last
week at a fundraiser in Sarasota, Fla.

He takes on not only the traditional vice presidential assignment of slicing up the opposition but also the Cassandra role of warning about dire threats to the nation's security.

ok, now, let's take a look inside, shall we...?

INSIDE DICK CHENEY'S MIND

see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya...

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Go ahead... Stick together and wait for the story to die down...

it's entirely possible that people are figuring out that you're a bunch of perverted, lying, corrupt, completely shameless bastards who don't give a shit for anyone but yourselves, which, of course, translates to doing whatever it takes to stay in power...

[A] common problem for ... Republican candidates around the country these days -- trying urgently 30 days before Election Day to frame a winning message but finding their efforts drowned out by the furor over former representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.).

"It's sucking all the air out of the room," Shaw said in an interview after his news conference at the port. "It's a tough time; there's just total saturation right now."

Back in Washington, Republican strategists acknowledge privately that, even under their best-case scenario, Foley's sexually charged messages and allegations that House leaders were too passive in responding to them will remain an all-consuming distraction for GOP campaigns for the next week.

Their strategy -- equal parts hope and calculation -- relies on waiting for the story to die down in local news outlets, even if it continues to dominate national news, while also accusing Democrats of exploiting a personal lapse for political gain.

do you want to know precisely HOW shameless...? didja catch those last 7 words - "exploiting a personal lapse for political gain...?" well, golly, gee whiz... correct me if i'm wrong, but i thought you guys had put the stamp of approval on THAT strategy... at least that's what i've always surmised after watching the hatchet job you did on the likes of max cleland and john kerry... seriously... am i wrong...?

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