Latest Republican caught in gay sex scandal resigns.

A Republican state legislator resigned his seat today amid revelations he had sex with a man he met at an erotic video store while in Spokane on a GOP retreat.

"I sincerely apologize for any pain my actions may have caused," he wrote. "This has been damaging to my family, and I don't want to subject them to any additional pain that might result from carrying out this matter under the scrutiny that comes with holding public office."

In other words (not "Republican not wanting to admit homosexuality" words) he now realizes that he is screwed and continuing to claim his innocence is a waste of time.

Apparently Curtis was dressed in drag and trolling an adult video store when he met his one night stand.

Damn when these Republicans decide to leave the closet they just fly out of the closet!

Who do you believe?

Iran on Tuesday denied involvement in killing US soldiers in Iraq, rejecting allegations that it supplies deadly explosives to insurgents attacking Americans in the conflict-torn country.

"The Islamic republic has no role in killing American soldiers in Iraq," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

"The American government lies to its citizens in this regard," he added.

I have no reason to find the Iranians especially honest, but I have hundreds of examples of the Bush administration lying to me.

So if I had to choose who to believe I would not hesitate to choose the Iranians.

Now I could be wrong, they in fact might be completely full of shit.

But we know how hard the White House is working to make the case for attacking Iran. And with that in mind how can we take any accusation they make seriously?

And once again this just makes me sad that I live in a country in which every other world leader appears more honest then mine. I wonder what it feels like to be proud of who you are, and where you come from?

Bush hates diplomacy so much he is trying to get all of our diplomats killed.

Several hundred U.S. diplomats vented anger and frustration Wednesday about the State Department's decision to force foreign service officers to take jobs in Iraq, with some likening it to a "potential death sentence."

In a contentious hourlong town-hall meeting, they peppered officials responsible for the order with often hostile complaints about the largest diplomatic call-up since Vietnam. Announced last week, it will require some diplomats — under threat of dismissal — to serve at the embassy in Baghdad and in reconstruction teams in outlying provinces.

Many expressed serious concern about the ethics of sending diplomats against their will to serve in a war zone, where the embassy staff is largely confined to the protected "Green Zone," and safety outside the area is uncertain while a review of the department's use of private security contractors to protect its staff is under way.

"Incoming is coming in every day, rockets are hitting the Green Zone," said Jack Croddy, a senior foreign service officer who once worked as a political adviser with NATO forces.

Have you ever noticed that the minute anybody in government demonstrates any sense of self preservation they are immediately forced to act suicidally by this administration?

Whether it is a soldier, a political aide, or a diplomat, they are punished for recognizing the insanity of the Bush policies or rewarded for "embracing the crazy".

How would you like to be sent into the middle of this hellhole, to supposedly try and negotiate with people who despise you , while hoping to be protected by a trigger happy security force which may be kicked out of the country before your tour is up?

I think I would go ahead and hand in my leter of resignation.

Did Hillary finally stumble in last night's debate?

Sen. Hillary Clinton’s vote to authorize the U.S. war in Iraq again came under attack, but her major rivals indicated at Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate that the party’s focus in foreign affairs could be shifting to a potential showdown with Iran.

While Clinton continued to separate herself from opponents who have called for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq — saying, “I stand for ending the war in Iraq and bringing our troops home, but I also understand that it’s going to take time” — former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina zeroed in on Clinton’s vote for a congressional resolution that declared Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.

That vote, he said, cleared the way for President Bush to invade Iran.

“I mean, has anybody read this thing?” Edwards asked. “I mean, it literally gave Bush and Cheney exactly what they wanted.”

Edwards is absolutely right in this assertion.

This is not simply politics, this is for he very future of our country and the world. It does not get any more important then it is right at this moment.

And there is no doubt in my mind that Hillary Clinton is the absolute wrong choice. I can barely find her better then the pitiful choice of Republicans that are fighting to run against her.

Is waterboarding torture? Well America sure thought so in 1947.

During his confirmation hearings earlier this month, Mukasey said he believes torture violates the Constitution, but he refused to be pinned down on whether he believes specific interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding, are constitutional.

“I don’t know what’s involved in the techniques. If waterboarding is torture, torture is not constitutional,” he said.

But after World War II, the United States government was quite clear about the fact that waterboarding was torture, at least when it was done to U.S. citizens:

[In] 1947, the United States charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for carrying out another form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian. The subject was strapped on a stretcher that was tilted so that his feet were in the air and head near the floor, and small amounts of water were poured over his face, leaving him gasping for air until he agreed to talk.

“Asano was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor,” Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) told his colleagues last Thursday during the debate on military commissions legislation. “We punished people with 15 years of hard labor when waterboarding was used against Americans in World War II,” he said.

All we need to do in this country is to remember that we are AMERICA!

We are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but goddamn it we believe in justice!

If we lose our sense of justice, we have lost the very soul of America.

I know that there are World War 2 veterans all over this country who simply cannot watch the television news anymore because it breaks their damn heart! What did they fight for? Well they sure as hell did not spend their youth in the army fighting the Nazis so that this pipsqueak George Bush could use Presidential slight of hand to take away the freedoms that they sacrificed their blood to give to EVERY American.

I cannot believe this is actually working!

A majority of likely voters – 52% – would support a U.S. military strike to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, and 53% believe it is likely that the U.S. will be involved in a military strike against Iran before the next presidential election, a new Zogby America telephone poll shows.

The survey results come at a time of increasing U.S. scrutiny of Iran. According to reports from the Associated Press, earlier this month Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran of "lying" about the aim of its nuclear program and Vice President Dick Cheney has raised the prospect of "serious consequences" if the U.S. were to discover Iran was attempting to devolop a nuclear weapon. Last week, the Bush administration also announced new sanctions against Iran.

When asked which presidential candidate would be best equipped to deal with Iran – regardless of whether or not they expected the U.S. to attack Iran – 21% would most like to see New York U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton leading the country, while 15% would prefer former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and 14% would want Arizona U.S. Sen. John McCain in charge. Another 10% said Illinois Sen. Barack Obama would be best equipped to deal with Iran, while Republican Fred Thompson (5%), Democrat John Edwards (4%) and Republican Mitt Romney (3%) were less likely to be viewed as the best leaders to help the U.S. deal with Iran. The telephone poll of 1,028 likely voters nationwide was conducted Oct. 24-27, 2007 and carries a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points.

This is just fucking embarrassing!

How stupid are we? Can nobody identify the pattern? We are so conditioned by the Bush administrations Pavlovian fear mongering that we automatically start hating anybody they tell us to hate.

The fact that the Iranians have made NO significant progress toward acquiring nuclear energy, not to mention nuclear weapons, seems to be beside the point. And how can this not remind Americans of how we accused Saddam of having weapons that he said he did not have, and the inspectors said he did not have?

Do you remember how that turned out?

He did not turn out to have them!

Come on people stop allowing yourself to be led around by the damn nose! You are intelligent beings! Use your brains!

The Daily Show asks "Is America ready for a FLILF?

There are not a lot of reasons in my opinion to be jealous of Dennis Kucinich, but he lovely Mr. Kucinich is definitely one of them.

Another "not gay" Republican caught having "not gay" sex with a dude.

A state lawmaker from southwest Washington in Spokane for a legislative retreat last week may have done some socializing here that now has the attention of local detectives.

State Representative Richard Curtis (R-La Center) was in Spokane last week and reportedly had consensual sex with another man at a downtown hotel that later led to blackmail. However Curtis says there was no sex and he isn't gay. Now Spokane police are trying to determine if Rep. Curtis did in fact have a sexual encounter here that made him a target for extortion.

Investigators are also looking for a still unnamed man who was with the representative. The pair reportedly had consensual sex inside the hotel and later Curtis was threatened that the liaison would not remain a secret unless he submitted to the extortion.

The alleged late night encounter is in sharp contrast to Curtis' political persona. While in Olympia, Curtis has voted against domestic partnerships for gay couples and opposed a bill that would have outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Every time I see one of these stories I cannot help but wonder just how deep the Republican closet actually is. Could there be another dozen? Another hundred? All of them?

Does much of the Republican support come from closeted gays who empathize with the difficulties faced by these poor men who are desperately hiding their sexuality?

It just blows my mind, but not in a gay way.

We may be about to hear the unvarnished truth about the criminal penetration of the FBI and the secrets about 9-11. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

Attention CBS 60 Minutes: we've got a huge scoop for you. If you want it.

Remember the exclusive story you aired on Sibel Edmonds, originally on October 27th, 2002, when she was not allowed to tell you everything that she heard while serving as an FBI translator after 9/11 because she was gagged by the rarely-invoked "States Secret Privilege"? Well, she's still gagged. In fact, as the ACLU first described her, she's "the most gagged person in the history of the United States of America."

But if you'll sit down and talk with her for an unedited interview, she has now told The BRAD BLOG during an exclusive interview, she will now tell you everything she knows.

Everything she hasn't been allowed to tell since 2002, about the criminal penetration of the FBI where she worked, and at the Departments of State and Defense; everything she heard concerning the corruption and illegal activities of several well-known members of Congress; everything she's aware of concerning information omitted and/or covered up in relation to 9/11. All of the information gleaned from her time listening to and translating wire-taps made prior to 9/11 at the FBI.

I think I have goosebumps. Is it possible? Could we really be on the verge of finding out the truth?

Oh please let this happen! I am not a religious guy but something like this might drive me to sending out a little prayer that this lady get the chance to tell her story.

I am going to call "60 Minutes" myself in the morning.

How many innocent deaths are worth the death of one Afghanistan bad guy? Our military says 29.

"There's this macabre kind of calculus that the military goes through on every air strike, where they try to figure out how many dead civilians is dead bad guy worth," says Marc Garlasco, who knows the calculus of civilian casualties as well as anyone.

At the Pentagon, Garlasco was chief of high value targeting at the start of the Iraq war. He told 60 Minutes his team was authorized to kill a set number of civilians around high-value targets -- targets like Saddam Hussein and his leadership.

"Our number was 30. So, for example, Saddam Hussein. If you're gonna kill up to 29 people in a strike against Saddam Hussein, that's not a problem," Garlasco explains. "But once you hit that number 30, we actually had to go to either President Bush, or Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld."

Garlasco says, before the invasion of Iraq, he recommended 50 air strikes aimed at high-value targets -- Iraqi officials.

But he says none of the targets on the list were actually killed. Instead, he says, "a couple of hundred civilians at least" were killed.

Reading this gave me a bad case of the chills.

If you read the article it makes the claim that just as many innocent Afghans have been killed by the U.S. Military as are being killed by the Taliban. I just don't know how you could possibly justify that.

"Islamofascists" a figment of neocon imaginations.

For one thing, there isn’t actually any such thing as Islamofascism — it’s not an ideology; it’s a figment of the neocon imagination. The term came into vogue only because it was a way for Iraq hawks to gloss over the awkward transition from pursuing Osama bin Laden, who attacked America, to Saddam Hussein, who didn’t. And Iran had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11 — in fact, the Iranian regime was quite helpful to the United States when it went after Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies in Afghanistan.

Beyond that, the claim that Iran is on the path to global domination is beyond ludicrous. Yes, the Iranian regime is a nasty piece of work in many ways, and it would be a bad thing if that regime acquired nuclear weapons. But let’s have some perspective, please: we’re talking about a country with roughly the G.D.P. of Connecticut, and a government whose military budget is roughly the same as Sweden’s.

Meanwhile, the idea that bombing will bring the Iranian regime to its knees — and bombing is the only option, since we’ve run out of troops — is pure wishful thinking. Last year Israel tried to cripple Hezbollah with an air campaign, and ended up strengthening it instead. There’s every reason to believe that an attack on Iran would produce the same result, with the added effects of endangering U.S. forces in Iraq and driving oil prices well into triple digits.

These guys have been making up one horrifying bogeyman after another in an attempt to keep Americans so frightened that they do not ask the logical questions that these crazy assertions demand.

Well it is almost Halloween and what better time to face our fears. Let's look behind the scary language and take a good look at who is using it, and why?

These people are scaring us into allowing them to take our freedoms away, that is what is really scary!

They are scaring us into supporting a war to attack Innocent people, now that is truly frightening!

They are scaring us into supporting a new President that will continue using these tactics to keep us scared, and that is absolutely bone chilling!

Well I am not afraid, and I hope neither are any of you. If we keep our heads uncovered and our hands from in from of our eyes we will see the bullshit coming and act accordingly. And that will take the power away from the neocons and fear mongers.

This a morning of "hat tips" as I give another one to Crooks and Liars.

New book to show just how well trained Tony Blair was as Bush's lapdog.

Tony Blair failed to stand up to George Bush over the invasion of Iraq, the former US secretary of state Colin Powell has claimed.

The damaging disclosure by an influential participant in the build-up to the war will undermine claims by Mr Blair's allies that he acted as a restraining influence on the president.
The observation is made in Blair Unbound, a new book about the former prime minister by the political biographer Anthony Seldon. Mr Powell recalled how he and Jack Straw, the former foreign secretary, attempted to find ways of restraining the two leaders.

At one point Mr Straw even flew to the US by Concorde to hold secret talks with his American ally.

But Mr Powell told Dr Seldon: "In the end Blair would always support the president. I found this very surprising. I never really understood why Blair seemed to be in such harmony with Bush. I thought, well, the Brits haven't been attacked on 9/11. How did he reach the point that he sees Saddam as such a threat? Jack and I would get him all pumped up about an issue. And he'd be ready to say, 'Look here, George'. But as soon as he saw the president he would lose all his steam."

Why? Why do people, Tony Blair is not alone in this, succumb to the will of George Bush?

Does he have some kind of overwhelming charm? It certainly does not translate onto television.

Is he extremely intelligent and articulate while making his argument? I certainly have never seen that!

I just do not understand how anybody could be convinced by anything that George Bush says, especially concerning such a monumental disaster.

I must give a hat tip to AMERICAblog for this story.

Obama says he is ready to take the gloves off while taking on Hillary.

Senator Barack Obama said he would start confronting Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton more directly and forcefully, saying Friday that she had not been candid in describing her views on critical policy issues, as he tries to address mounting alarm among supporters that his lack of assertiveness so far has allowed her to dominate the presidential race.

Mr. Obama’s vow to go on the offensive comes just over two months before the first votes are cast for the Democratic nomination, and after a long period in which his aides, donors and other supporters have battled — and in some cases shared — the perception that he has not exhibited the aggressiveness demanded by presidential politics.

In an interview on Friday that was initiated by his campaign to signal the change of course, Mr. Obama said “now is the time” for him to distinguish himself from Mrs. Clinton. While he said that he was not out to “kneecap the front-runner, because I don’t think that’s what the country is looking for,” he said she was deliberately obscuring her positions for political gain and was less likely than he was to win back the White House for Democrats.

Asked in the interview on Friday if Mrs. Clinton had been fully truthful with voters about what she would do as president, Mr. Obama replied, “No.”


“I don’t think people know what her agenda exactly is,” Mr. Obama continued, citing Social Security, Iraq and Iran as issues on which he said she had not been fully forthcoming. “Now it’s been very deft politically, but one of the things that I firmly believe is that we’ve got to be clear with the American people right now about the important choices that we’re going to need to make in order to get a mandate for change, not to try to obfuscate and avoid being a target in the general election and then find yourself governing without any support for any bold propositions.”

I was one of the people that suggested that both Edwards and Obama resist the urge to attack Hillary because I felt it would look like bullying and create sympathy for her.

But I am taking that back now. Both of them need to call her on her constant pandering to the Right and her vote on the Iran bill. She is acting like George Bush in drag and I have stopped trusting anything that she says.

And almost as much as I DO want George Bush impeached, I DON'T want Hillary nominated!

Another break from politics. Watch these newscasters get owned in Halloween prank.

I love the lady that ran. Now she has some good reflexes!

Thousands march for end to Iraq war.

Thousands of people called for a swift end to the war in Iraq as they marched through downtown on Saturday, chanting and carrying signs that read: "Wall Street Gets Rich, Iraqis and GIs Die" or "Drop Tuition Not Bombs."

The streets were filled with thousands as labor union members, anti-war activists, clergy and others rallied near City Hall before marching to Dolores Park.

As part of the demonstration, protesters fell on Market Street as part of a "die in" to commemorate the thousands of American soldiers and Iraqi citizens who have died since the conflict began in March 2003.

The protest was the largest in a series of war protests taking place in New York, Los Angeles and other U.S. cities, organizers said.

No official head count was available. Organizers of the event estimated about 30,000 people participated in San Francisco. It appeared that more than 10,000 people attended the march.

"I got the sense that many people were at a demonstration for the first time," said Sarah Sloan, one of the event's organizers. "That's something that's really changed. People have realized the right thing to do is to take to the streets."

I did not realize that there was an organized peace march in Alaska yesterday. I would have liked to have been there. So now I feel bad for having missed it.

I think I am going to make an effort to touch base with more of my anti war neighbors so that I can offer some of my support in any future demonstrations or fundraisers.

The hazards for runners in Alaska are...well let's call them unique.

The attack happened Thursday as Wallmer was traveling to the Rapids camp yurt. She was running with her dog, about 10 minutes ahead of another volunteer.

Officials say she was making noise on the trail to announce her presence, but the blowing wind probably obscured her voice.

The bear charged her, and she dropped her dog's leash and turned her back to the sow. The bear bit her once.

The bear roared and left, presumably to chase the dog. The dog came back about 10 minutes later with the other volunteer on a four-wheeler.

I have a policy of staying out of heavily wooded areas in the spring and in the late fall.

There is less chance of ending up as "bear poo" that way.

Condi Rice finally realizes that she does not know what she is doing and turns to ex-Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

Anxious not to repeat mistakes of past Middle East peace-making, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has turned to former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter for tips ahead of her own conference this year.

Rice invited Carter, a vocal critic of Bush administration policies, to the State Department on Wednesday where the two discussed his Arab-Israeli peacemaking efforts in the 1970s, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Friday.

Their talks were "good and cordial," he said. They focused on the Middle East and not Carter's recent criticism of President George W. Bush's policies in Iraq and elsewhere.

A Soviet specialist, Rice also telephoned another former Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who tried, and ultimately failed, in his eight years in office to bring the Israelis and Palestinians together.

"She's trying to draw on the historical record and the experiences of others to see -- see what she can glean and how that may be applicable to the current day," McCormack said.

This administration can spin it any way they want to, but it is obvious that they do not know shit about brokering a peace. And even though both Clinton and Carter could not forge a lasting peace, they came far closer then this administration could ever hope to.

Have I mentioned how much I just love Karma?

The dark hearted Dick Cheney will use Israel to satisfy his addiction to war in the Middle East.

US Vice President Dick Cheney -- the power behind the throne, the eminence grise, the man with the (very) occasional grandfatherly smile -- is notorious for his propensity for secretiveness and behind-the-scenes manipulation. He's capable of anything, say friends as well as enemies. Given this reputation, it's no big surprise that Cheney has already asked for a backroom analysis of how a war with Iran might begin.

In the scenario concocted by Cheney's strategists, Washington's first step would be to convince Israel to fire missiles at Iran's uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Tehran would retaliate with its own strike, providing the US with an excuse to attack military targets and nuclear facilities in Iran.

This information was leaked by an official close to the vice president. Cheney himself hasn't denied engaging in such war games. For years, in fact, he's been open about his opinion that an attack on Iran, a member of US President George W. Bush's "Axis of Evil," is inevitable.

I posted about this over a year ago.

It is clear that the American people will not support an overt military action against Iran, but those same Americans will absolutely support defending Israel if they pick the fight instead.

If this White House does anything well, they are extremely adept at manipulating our emotions.

Whether it is taking our white hot anger and sense of nationalism after 9-11 and using it to bully the Senate into supporting our invasion of Iraq, or using the fear of terrorism to maintain their hold on power, these guys know how to push our buttons and keep us off balance as they do whatever they damn well please with our country and its military.

We must find a way to stop them before they bring our country and the rest of the world into a flaming abyss of eternal warfare.

This is why it so difficult to have an intelligent conversation about religion in this country.

About eight-in-ten Americans say that they have no doubt that God exists, that prayer is an important part of their lives, and that "we will all be called before God at the Judgment Day to answer for our sins." But the intensity of agreement with these indicators of religiosity has shown a modest decline in recent years, after increasing through much of the 1990s. While overall agreement with the three statements has remained fairly stable, the number of people who completely agree with each statement rose during the 1990s and has declined more recently. For example, the percentage completely agreeing that "we will all be called before God at the Judgment Day" rose from 52% in 1987 to more than 60% in the 1990s. It now stands at 54%, down 7 points from 1999 and five points from 2003.

I do understand why this is so comforting to people, I just don't understand why they would trade their intellectual curiosity away in exchange for what are essentially children's bedtime stories.

But according to recent research we may be biologically wired by evolution to belief in the things we believe in. I am just glad that I was not born with the "religion gene".

Oh you are not going to believe this!

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig will argue before an appeals court that Minnesota's disorderly conduct law is unconstitutional as it applies to his conviction in a bathroom sex sting, according to a new court filing.

This is the first time Craig's attorneys have raised that issue. However, an earlier friend-of-the-court filing by the American Civil Liberties Union argued that Craig's foot-tapping and hand gesture under a stall divider at the Minneapolis airport are protected by the First Amendment.

You might want to read that again just to convince yourself that you did not get it wrong.

Yes Larry Craig is saying that his actions in the bathroom stall of an airport was protected by this amendment to the Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So is Larry Craig claiming he was practicing some arcane religious belief? Probably not.

Well he is certainly not very competent when it comes to the press, so let us assume he is suggesting that he was practicing "free speech".

I guess I should commend Craig and his legal team with having gigantic balls to suggest that tapping your foot on the floor of a bathroom is protected by the First Amendment, but I can't because it just seems so completely desperate.

If Larry Craig thinks he is mending the damage done to his reputation by his initial arrest he is very wrong. He is simply providing vast amounts of ammunition for late night talk show hosts and bloggers such as myself. And though we appreciate it, I cannot help but feel sorry for somebody who created a life of cards and will not accept that it has fallen down and simply cannot be rebuilt.

FEMA concerned that reporters will make embarrassing comparisons between the California fires and Katrina decide to provide their own reporters.

FEMA has truly learned the lessons of Katrina. Even its handling of the media has improved dramatically. For example, as the California wildfires raged Tuesday, Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator, had a 1 p.m. news briefing.

Reporters were given only 15 minutes' notice of the briefing, making it unlikely many could show up at FEMA's Southwest D.C. offices. They were given an 800 number to call in, though it was a "listen only" line, the notice said -- no questions. Parts of the briefing were carried live on Fox News, MSNBC and other outlets.

Johnson stood behind a lectern and began with an overview before saying he would take a few questions. The first questions were about the "commodities" being shipped to Southern California and how officials are dealing with people who refuse to evacuate. He responded eloquently.

He was apparently quite familiar with the reporters -- in one case, he appears to say "Mike" and points to a reporter -- and was asked an oddly in-house question about "what it means to have an emergency declaration as opposed to a major disaster declaration" signed by the president. He once again explained smoothly.

FEMA press secretary Aaron Walker interrupted at one point to caution he'd allow just "two more questions." Later, he called for a "last question."

"Are you happy with FEMA's response so far?" a reporter asked. Another asked about "lessons learned from Katrina."

"I'm very happy with FEMA's response so far," Johnson said, hailing "a very smoothly, very efficiently performing team."

"And so I think what you're really seeing here is the benefit of experience, the benefit of good leadership and the benefit of good partnership," Johnson said, "none of which were present in Katrina." (Wasn't Michael Chertoff DHS chief then?) Very smooth, very professional. But something didn't seem right. The reporters were lobbing too many softballs. No one asked about trailers with formaldehyde for those made homeless by the fires. And the media seemed to be giving Johnson all day to wax on and on about FEMA's greatness.

Of course, that could be because the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters. We're told the questions were asked by Cindy Taylor, FEMA's deputy director of external affairs, and by "Mike" Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs. Director of External Affairs John "Pat" Philbin asked a question, and another came, we understand, from someone who sounds like press aide Ali Kirin.

So the lesson that FEMA learned from the Katrina debacle was to control the media better?

If this does not illustrate how close we have drifted toward fascism I don't know what would.

The government posing as those reporting on the government.

Hitler would be very proud.

George Bush may be crazy enough to start a war with Iran, but is he crazy enough to start a war with Russia?

A high-level diplomatic source in Tehran tells Asia Times Online that essentially Putin and the Supreme Leader have agreed on a plan to nullify the George W Bush administration's relentless drive towards launching a preemptive attack, perhaps a tactical nuclear strike, against Iran. An American attack on Iran will be viewed by Moscow as an attack on Russia.

I am no fan of Putin, but he may be the only person who can put a stop to Bush's relentless push toward war with Iran.

Another day, another step closer to attacking Iran.

President Bush imposed the harshest sanctions on Iran for a generation and branded its military a supporter of terrorism yesterday, fuelling claims that he is preparing possible air strikes against Tehran.

Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, accused the Iranian Revolutionary Guard of being a proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and its elite al-Quds Force of supporting terrorism, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The new sanctions, the first time that the US has sought to punish another country’s military, cap a concerted effort by the Bush Administration in recent weeks to recast the Iraq war as a wider battle against the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.

I feel like I am a passenger in a car slowly rolling toward a cliff, and no matter how hard I yell or scramble to push the brake or grab the steering wheel the car just keeps on rolling.

I hear the media bringing this topic over and over, which is unlike the march to war with Iraq, but it seems to be having no effect on the Bush administration at all.

At this point I think the only way they could be stopped is if the Republicans and Democrats believed that ALL of them would lose their next re-election bids if the war were to take place.

I for one will not vote for ANY politician who either purposefully, or ignorantly, allows Bush to pursue this suicidal option. And yes that includes Hillary Clinton.

FOX News is actually trying to blame the California fires on al-Qaeda!

These guys are shamelessly using yet another terrible disaster to try and scare Americans into supporting the Bush administrations so called "War on Terror".

That memo they are talking about is from SIX YEARS AGO!

These guys are charlatans and should be yanked from television news as soon as possible!

What a bunch of assholes!

One of my favorite topics revisited. Declaring George Bush insane!

The U.S. is full of ordinary people with serious forms of mental illness -- delusional people with violent fantasies who think they're the president, or who think they get instructions from the CIA through their dental fillings.

The problem with Bush is that he is the president -- and he gives instructions to the CIA and military, without having to go through his dental fillings.

Impeachment's not the solution to psychosis, no matter how flagrant. But despite their impressive foresight in other areas, the framers unaccountably neglected to include an involuntary civil commitment procedure in the Constitution.

Still, don't lose hope. By enlisting the aid of mental health professionals and the court system, Congress can act to remedy that constitutional oversight. The goal: Get Bush and Cheney committed to an appropriate inpatient facility, where they can get the treatment they so desperately need. In Washington, the appropriate statutory law is already in place: If a "court or jury finds that [a] person is mentally ill and . . . is likely to injure himself or other persons if allowed to remain at liberty, the court may order his hospitalization."

Now really, who among us cannot get behind this idea?

And if you can't then maybe you are the one in need of psychiatric counseling.

Christians afraid that Halloween will warp their children's young minds, decide they would rather warp them their way.

“Eternal Nightmare” will feature walk-through scenes that depict “the horrors of drugs, alcohol, abortion, self-mutilation” and more, said the Rev. Jim Cookson, pastor of the church.

The final scene will present the story of Jesus Christ as the answer to those horrors.

The free event is recommended for children over 12 years old, Cookson said. The program is being presented by the church’s youth department. This is the fourth year the church has presented the program.

Well of course the real question is will there be candy?

If Jesus were REALLY there then he would be handing out candy. Jesus was good like that.

Okay this may or may not be one of Larry Craig's sexual partners.

If you follow all of the links you are rewarded with a VERY graphic story of a sexual encounter that you may spend the rest of the day trying to forget.

Or maybe you will simply love it.

Who am I to judge?

Fear and superstition prompts removal of Harry Potter books from Catholic school library.

The summer reading feats of Lynne Bimmler's sixth-grade class are proudly chronicled on the St. Joseph's School website.

"The sixth grade reads an average of 7.5 books each with many students in double digits," says a note on the class page. "Of course, Harry Potter was a popular choice."

But last month, students found that their favorite series had "disapparated" from the school library, after St. Joseph's pastor, the Rev. Ron Barker, removed the books, declaring that the themes of witchcraft and sorcery were inappropriate for a Catholic school.

"He said that he thought most children were strong enough to resist the temptation," said one mother who asked that her name not be used because she did not want her family to be singled out. "But he said it's his job to protect the weak and the strong."

It seems that no matter how far humans progress from the superstitious cave dwellers that saw spirits in trees and ghosts revealed in the morning mists, we still cannot seem to let go of a primitive belief that fears magic or philosophies which challenge their chosen belief systems.

These books have fired up children's imaginations and made reading fun again. That is the sort of "magic" that should be in any school library.

Here are some things you might like to know about the amazing Stephen Colbert.

Here is one of my favorite little factoids:

Even though he's mounting an annoyingly-ubiquitous run for president, he'd be happy to see someone else win: "I would love to see a President Huckabee because if our president were named 'Huckabee," how bad could anything really seem?... It'd be as if the entire country was animated by Hanna Barbera. Can you imagine the Huckabee Monument?"

And also this one , simply because I also was cast to play either Jesus or Judas. (How is that for a split personality?)

He is a huge theater geek. After singing parts of two different songs from Jesus Christ Superstar, Colbert mused, "Wouldn't it be great if my character played Jesus? 'Wait, wait, wait. What's this crucifix part? I thought he was king."

I adore both Stephen and Jon, if for nothing else then the fact that they allow me to laugh at things that mostly make me want to cry.

According to our government we have 755,000 terrorists in this country. Well gee if they say it then it must be true.

The government's terrorist watch list has swelled to more than 755,000 names, according to a new government report that has raised worries about the list's effectiveness.

The size of the list, typically used to check people entering the country through land border crossings, airports and sea ports, has been growing by 200,000 names a year since 2004. Some lawmakers, security experts and civil rights advocates warn that it will become useless if it includes too many people.

"It undermines the authority of the list," says Lisa Graves of the Center for National Security Studies. "There's just no rational, reasonable estimate that there's anywhere close to that many suspected terrorists."

The exact number of people on the list, compiled after 9/11 to help government agents keep terrorists out of the country, is unclear, according to the report by the Government

Accountability Office (GAO). Some people may be on the list more than once because they are listed under multiple spellings.

This is what 31 billion dollars buys us? That is what we spent on "Homeland Security" last year.

I have to wonder how many of us are on that list? You know, people who dare to challenge the governments judgement and choices. Are we the enemy too?

Because as you know,"If you are not on the side of the President, then you are on the side of the terrorists".

Are you kidding me?

The Bush Administration is considering air strikes, including cruise missiles, against the Kurdish rebel group PKK in northern Iraq.

The move would be an attempt to stave off a Turkish invasion of that country to fight the rebels.

President George Bush spoke with Turkish President Abdullah Gul by phone yesterday in an effort to ease the crisis.

Does this President believe that "diplomacy" is synonymous with "air strikes"?

The Kurds are almost completely reliant on the American military support. Doesn't that give us a lot of clout to negotiate with them? Why the hell would we automatically start bombing the people that our Americans soldiers have been dying to liberate?

I canot believe that the Kurds are not willing to talk to the country that saved their asses about the country that they are pissed at. Somebody send Jesse Jackson in there for God's sake!

George Bush is biggest spender since LBJ.

George W. Bush, despite all his recent bravado about being an apostle of small government and budget-slashing, is the biggest spending president since Lyndon B. Johnson. In fact, he's arguably an even bigger spender than LBJ.

“He’s a big government guy,” said Stephen Slivinski, the director of budget studies at Cato Institute, a libertarian research group.

Discretionary spending went up in Bush's first term by 48.5 percent, not adjusted for inflation, more than twice as much as Bill Clinton did (21.6 percent) in two full terms, Slivinski reports.

Including costs for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, defense spending under Bush has gone up 86 percent since 2001, according to Chris Hellman of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

Current annual defense spending — not counting war costs — is 25 percent above the height of the Reagan-era buildup, Hellman said.

Homeland security spending also has soared, to about $31 billion last year, triple the pre-9/11 number.

And it seems that most of this spending is being paid for by China, to whom we owe billions of dollars . So not only is George Bush spending billion of dollars, but because he stubbornly refuses to raise taxes, he is leaving the debt to our children and grandchildren.

Remember that the rule for understanding what the President is really doing, is to take what he says in a press conference or speech and flip to the opposite. If you just keep doing that it seems the President is telling the truth.

He is after all, the Bizarro President.

Ten Bruce Lee facts because he was my hero when I was a kid.

Here is my favorite fact.

7. Want to challenge Bruce Lee? Just tap your foot on the ground!After he got famous, a lot of people thought they could beat Bruce - they would walk up to him, tap their foot on the ground (symbolizing a challenge) and then proceed to attack him! Well… maybe not that literal, but Bruce’s popularity certainly attracted a lot nutcase trying to prove they’re better than him.

One day, while filming Enter the Dragon, an extra taunted Bruce Lee and challenged him to fight. The whole thing went on like this:

"This kid was good. He was no punk. He was strong and fast, and he was really trying to punch Bruce’s brains in. But Bruce just methodically took him apart."

"I mean Bruce kept moving so well, this kid couldn’t touch him…Then all of a sudden, Bruce got him and rammed his ass into the wall and swept him, he proceeded to drop his knee into his opponent’s chest, locked his arm out straight, and nailed him in the face repeatedly."

Typical of Bruce Lee, after the fight he didn’t fire the extra - he actually gave his challenger lesson on how to improve!

Hey, everybody needs a break from politics once in a while.

This should not have happened!

Rep. Pete Stark takes back his obviously truthful remarks about George Bush and the Iraq war after being pressured by the Republicans and their noise machine.

He was absolutely correct in his characterization and I am embarrassed that he felt he needed to apologize for what he said.

The truth is dead in our country, and the truth tellers are rapidly headed toward extinction.

Do progressive bloggers have the power to force the Democrats to finally hold the President accountable for his actions?

In a move that will up the pressure on Hillary and Barack Obama to stand firm against the Senate telecom immunity FISA bill, MoveOn and a dozen top progressive blogs will launch an all-out campaign tomorrow to pressure the two Senators into publicly declaring their support for Chris Dodd's threat to place a hold on and filibuster the bill, Election Central has learned.

MoveOn spokesman Adam Green tells me that the group will send out an email to "thousands" of its members tomorrow morning, and thousands more throughout the day, asking them to call the offices of Hillary and Obama and demand that they publicly affirm their support for Dodd.

"We'll be asking Obama and Clinton to publicly get Chris Dodd's back and say in a statement that they will explicitly support his hold and filibuster," Green tells me. "Pretty much this is the exact same ask made to Joe Biden in a Washington Post chat. The question was, Will you join Chris Dodd? He said Yes."

If Hillary and Obama don't comply, Green added, "it would send an unfortunate signal to Democratic voters about whether they're willing to stand up to George Bush. The idea is to get Democrats to stand on principle and exercise the powers of their office to stop Bush from covering up how far he went in illegally spying on the private emails and phone calls of innocent Americans."

Well I am going to lend my support to this cause, as insignificant as it may be.

I applaud my fellow progressives for rising up and demanding that the Democrats start doing their damn jobs! It is beyond frustrating to read day after day the accounts of this administration continuing to push through policies designed to increase our commitment in Iraq and steal our freedoms here at home.

We placed all of our hopes on the Democrats in the mistaken belief that they understood our anger and frustration and would act on our behalf. That has not happened.

In the immortal words of Nancy Reagan, 'Just say no!"

U.S. President George W. Bush asked Congress on Monday for $189.3 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, another huge request that faced deep skepticism from lawmakers opposed to prolonging the Iraq conflict.

Bush's request covers military operations for fiscal 2008, which began on October 1, the White House said. If approved it would make 2008 the most expensive year in the Iraq and Afghan wars and would be on top of about $600 billion already approved for those conflicts.

House of Representatives appropriators said earlier this month they would not even consider the new war funding request until early 2008, and that they wanted to link it to a plan to bring U.S. combat troops home.

Bush cannot kill more innocent Iraqis without more money.

Bush cannot send American soldiers to their death in an illegal war without more money.

Bush cannot start a new war in Iran without more money.

Bush cannot continue to steal the oil revenues from the Iraqis without more money.

So can the Congress just find their backbone for once and refuse the Presidents request, stand firm against the predictable conservative attacks, and just put an end to this debacle once and for all?

Civilian deaths increase tension between Iraqi government and US Military.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met Sunday with the top U.S. military commander in Iraq to voice his outrage over the reported deaths of Iraqi civilians during a Sunday morning military raid in Baghdad's Sadr City, a government spokesman told CNN.

Al-Maliki expressed his concerns to Gen. David Petraeus over Iraqi reports that 10 to 15 civilians were killed in the raid, spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told CNN's "Late Edition."

The U.S. military said its ground forces are "unaware" of civilian deaths in the early morning raid that it said left 49 "criminals" dead.

"There is a great tension in the Iraqi government" over the incident, al-Dabbagh said.

I just think it is ridiculous for the American military to even think that they can kill the "enemy" without also taking out a number of civilians. These people live virtually on to of each other, and our bombs are certainly not sophisticated enough to only kill the "bad guy" while sparing the life of the woman or child in the next room.

I understand the concept of keeping American troops safe by trying to kill the target from a distance without putting our people within striking distance, but then we have to ask does that mean we are placing more value on a soldiers life then the life of an Iraqi mother? Or an Iraqi child?

The Secret History of the Impending War with Iran That the White House Doesn't Want You to Know

Two former high-ranking policy experts from the Bush Administration say the U.S. has been gearing up for a war with Iran for years, despite claiming otherwise. It'll be Iraq all over again.

In the years after 9/11, Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann worked at the highest levels of the Bush administration as Middle East policy experts for the National Security Council. Mann conducted secret negotiations with Iran. Leverett traveled with Colin Powell and advised Condoleezza Rice. They each played crucial roles in formulating policy for the region leading up to the war in Iraq. But when they left the White House, they left with a growing sense of alarm -- not only was the Bush administration headed straight for war with Iran, it had been set on this course for years. That was what people didn't realize. It was just like Iraq, when the White House was so eager for war it couldn't wait for the UN inspectors to leave. The steps have been many and steady and all in the same direction. And now things are getting much worse. We are getting closer and closer to the tripline, they say.

"The hard-liners are upping the pressure on the State Department," says Leverett. "They're basically saying, 'You've been trying to engage Iran for more than a year now and what do you have to show for it? They keep building more centrifuges, they're sending this IED stuff over into Iraq that's killing American soldiers, the human-rights internal political situation has gotten more repressive -- what the hell do you have to show for this engagement strategy?' "
But the engagement strategy was never serious and was designed to fail, they say. Over the last year, Rice has begun saying she would talk to "anybody, anywhere, anytime," but not to the Iranians unless they stopped enriching uranium first. That's not a serious approach to diplomacy, Mann says. Diplomacy is about talking to your enemies. That's how wars are averted. You work up to the big things. And when U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker had his much-publicized meeting with his Iranian counterpart in Baghdad this spring, he didn't even have permission from the White House to schedule a second meeting.

The most ominous new development is the Bush administration's push to name the Iranian Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization.

"The U.S. has designated any number of states over the years as state sponsors of terrorism," says Leverett. "But here for the first time the U.S. is saying that part of a government is itself a terrorist organization."

And lest we forget, Hillary also voted for the bill to label the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as "terrorists".

We cannot allow ourselves to be forced into another war by this insane administration, and the only way to put a stop to it is to continue getting the word out and calling our Senators and Congressmen and telling them to put the brakes on.

I don't think it can even be argued that this administration is not trying to completely sabotage the future of our country. They are suicidal maniacs and they don't want to die alone.

Chess master Gary Kasparov tells it like it is on Real Time.

I missed this show twice, so I have been watching various clips throughout today trying to get caught up. (It just figures that it was the one show with all of the action.)

I watched this particular clip and could not help but think that Gary Kasparov has got a razor sharp ability to observe and do commentary on any number of political shenanigans, both here and in his country of Russia.

Somebody should get this guy his own show immediately!

Will Alberto Gonzales finally learn the meaning of justice?

The U.S. Inspector General may recommend criminal prosecution of departed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at the conclusion of an investigation, possibly as early as next month, the fired former U.S. attorney for Western Washington told a Spokane audience Friday.

His refusal to open a federal criminal investigation into voter fraud allegations in Gov. Chris Gregoire’s razor-thin victory over Republican challenger Dino Rossi in 2004 may be the reason he was fired, John McKay told the Federal Bar Association.

Appointed by President Bush in October 2001 to the top law enforcement job in western Washington, McKay said he believes he and seven other U.S. attorneys were fired last December by Gonzales for political reasons, perhaps with former White House chief of staff Karl Rove pulling strings.

Career prosecutors in his office and FBI agents agreed there was no reason to go forward with a federal investigation of the Gregoire-Rossi election, and issues associated with it were more properly addressed by state officials, McKay said.

McKay said he was summoned to Washington, D.C., in June and questioned for eight hours about possible reasons for his firing by investigators with the Office of Inspector General, who will forward their final report to Congress.

It was reported last week that Gonzales has now retained a high-profile defense lawyer, and apparently is refusing to answer questions from the Inspector General, which could signify the investigation is nearly complete, McKay said.

“When it lands … it is going to be an extremely negative report on President Bush’s Justice Department,’’ McKay told the packed conference room, which included federal prosecutors and judges.

“There was a conspiracy to politicize the Justice Department,’’ the former U.S. attorney said, “and they did not get away with it.”

I have a very hard time believing that this will happen while George Bush is still the President of the United States. But if it does happen I think I might throw a little party.

If this is how Jesus walked on water then I live in a state filled to the brim with Messiah wannabes.

Jesus may not have walked on water as the Bible claims but rather skated on ice formed through a freak cold spell, a scientific study has suggested.

Rare atmospheric and water conditions could have caused ice to form on the freshwater Sea of Galilee.

The research shows a period of cooler weather swept what is now northern Israel from 1,500 to 2,600 years ago.

Sub-zero temperatures could have caused the formation of ice thick enough to support the weight of a man.

You know I am always puzzled why scientists feel compelled to explain miracles from the bible. As if the stores were the result of credible eyewitness reports and jotted down by an unbiased reporter for posterity. You know they could simply be out and out fabrications. Or older stories regurgitated for the Christian consumers.

If we are to find it necessary to find a reasonable explanation for the events in the bible must we also discover how Mohammad moved his mountain? Or how Apollo managed to pilot his chariot across the skies?

These are stories, allegories, and metaphors, which are not necessarily meant to be taken seriously.

Bill Maher gets blowback from saying the 9-11 conspiracy theorists should be medicated.

I support the 9-11 crowd for the most part, but this does not further their cause.

There are a lot of very smart people who think the official story behind the 9-11 attacks is bogus, but most of them would not have disrupted a television show and shown themselves to be unsophisticated kooks. That just undermines the whole discussion.

Groups beg the Senate to remove money earmarked to support Creationism in Louisiana.

More than 30 organizations have joined forces to urge the U.S. Senate to remove a provision from an appropriations bill that directs tax money to a Louisiana group that promotes creationism.

U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) inserted the earmark into the Appropriations Committee’s report on a bill allocating money for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education. Vitter wants to designate $100,000 to the Louisiana Family Forum (LFF) “to develop a plan to promote better science education.”

In a letter to every member of the Senate, the groups point out that the LFF is a creationist organization with clear religious ties. Awarding tax money to this organization, they argue, presents serious church-state problems.

“This makes about as much sense as asking a plumber to fix your car you’ve got the wrong person for the job,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, one of the groups opposing the earmark. “The creationists’ main goal is to spread fundamentalist dogma, not enhance scientific literacy.”

Well it just figures that the whore mongering, family values, hypocrite would be behind this earmark.

Pandering to the religious right while dipping his wick in the sexy left. David Vitter is just the kind of two-faced lying politician who would believe that giving taxpayers dollars to dumb down our kids, while promoting the superstitious beliefs of his most ignorant constituents, was perfectly reasonable.

I still hope his wife wakes up one night and decides to "Bobbitt", just like she promised she would do if she caught him cheating. That just sounds like sweet justice to me.

So how does defending the terrorist activites of the Kurds against Turkey jive with that whole "War against Terror"?

Kurdish leaders said yesterday the United States is obliged by a U.N. resolution to defend them in the event that Turkish forces invade northern Iraq in pursuit of members of a Kurdish rebel movement.

They also said they will continue to sign oil contracts with international companies while awaiting passage of an Iraqi oil law, despite objections from Baghdad and the State Department.

"The U.S. forces are mandated by the United Nations to protect Iraq's sovereignty and defend Iraq's people," said Qubad Talabani, the Kurdistan Regional Government's representative in Washington.

But Mr. Talabani, who was accompanied by the head of the Kurdistan government's foreign relations department, said he is worried the United States might not fulfill that commitment.

"We would like stronger reassurances by the United States that they would defend the Iraqi people, be it in the south, north or center, if they were threatened in any way," Mr. Talabani told editors and reporters at The Washington Times.

You know the Iraq situation may evolve form being a quagmire to being at fucking black hole at this rate.

With the Blackwater thing simmering on the back burner, and then this Turkey/Kurd thing heating up as well, we may see a nuclear explosion without any fission even necessary.

The defense industry is overwhelmingly supporting Hillary. George Bush gave them two wars to support their industry, what has Hillary promised them?

Mrs Clinton’s wooing of the defence industry is all the more remarkable given the frosty relations between Bill Clinton and the military during his presidency. An analysis of campaign contributions shows senior defence industry employees are pouring money into her war chest in the belief that their generosity will be repaid many times over with future defence contracts.

Employees of the top five US arms manufacturers - Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, General Dynamics and Raytheon - gave Democratic presidential candidates $103,900, with only $86,800 going to the Republicans. “The contributions clearly suggest the arms industry has reached the conclusion that Democratic prospects for 2008 are very good indeed,” said Thomas Edsall, an academic at Columbia University in New York.

Republican administrations are by tradition much stronger supporters of US armaments programmes and Pentagon spending plans than Democratic governments. Relations between the arms industry and Bill Clinton soured when he slimmed down the military after the end of the Cold War. His wife, however, has been careful not to make the same mistake.

After her election to the Senate, she became the first New York senator on the armed services committee, where she revealed her hawkish tendencies by supporting the invasion of Iraq. Although she now favours a withdrawal of US troops, her position on Iran is among the most warlike of all the candidates - Democrat or Republican.

These guys get rich, when people get dead.

So how has Hillary convinced them to support her campaign? And does her vote to support calling Iran’s 125,000-member Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign terrorist organization have anything to do with it? Is she somehow signaling them her desire to continue the insane Bush Middle east policies?

These are question that we must have clarified before ANYBODY throws their support to Hillary Clinton.

I just don't believe that Democrats understand what getting Hillary in the White House will mean to this country. Don't allow yourself to be seduced by the charms of Bill Clinton, he is not the one running.

You did nothing wrong but we arrested you, deported you to another country, and then tortured you. Sorry?

U.S. lawmakers on Thursday offered apologies to a Canadian citizen who was deported by U.S. counterterrorism officials to Syria, where he says he was imprisoned and tortured.

Lawmakers from both parties also called on the Bush administration to apologize to Maher Arar, a Syrian-born software engineer still barred from entering the United States even though the Canadian government has cleared him of any links to terrorist groups.

"Our country made a mistake and has been unwilling to own up to it," California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said. "It reflects an arrogance I don't like to see in our government."

Well that is one. Now we just have to apologizes to all of the other innocent brown people we rounded up after 9-11 and sent to third world countries to be punished for looking like the people who the Bush administration blamed for crashing all of those planes.

Of course this next part of the article will surprise no one.

An administration official said she was not aware of any plans for the White House to issue an apology to Arar.

Yeah in order for this administration to apologize to any one they would finally have to admit they screwed up. But you see the only people who do not know just how badly this administration has fucked up our country is this administration.

Anderson Cooper and Stephen Colbert together. Ladies is it getting hot in here? Well that is Global Warming.

Lou Dobbs: I am worried whether or not the country can survive the remaining 15 months of the Bush Presidency.

Diehard GOP faithful, the dwindling number of Bush loyalists and political pundits of every stripe and medium seem obsessed these days with defining or discerning the "legacy of George W. Bush."

Frankly, I spend more time worrying about whether or not the United States can survive the remaining 15 months of his ebbing presidency.

There is little mystery about what future historians will consider to be the legacy of the 43rd president of the United States. Those historians are certain to describe the first presidential administration of the 21st century with terms such as dissipation and perversion.

Bush campaigned for the Republican Party's nomination eight years ago, styling himself as a compassionate conservative. He's amply demonstrated that he is neither.

Although many conservatives refuse to accept the reality, George W. Bush is a one-world neo-liberal who drove budget and trade deficits to record heights while embracing faith-based economic policies that perversely require only blind allegiance to free markets and free trade, without regard for consequence.

This president pursues a war without demanding of his generals either success or victory and accepts the sacrifice of our brave young men and women in uniform while asking nothing of our people or the nation at a time of war.

Sadly, this president has diminished a great nation and may diminish it further.

I cannot say that i see eye to eye with Lou Dobbs on every issue, but I have always admired the fact that he is an intelligent man with passionately held beliefs.

On this issue he and I are in absolute agreement. This Presidency is a national embarrassment, and it does not look like we are finished having our country damaged by it.

And it is the reason that I continue to beat the drum for impeachment. I know that the Democrats do not want to "go there", but I feel they are being short sighted and not sufficiently fearing what this President may be capable of in his last remaining months in office.

He is out of his damn mind and as long as he is in power, we are in danger.

Let's stop dicking around and get him out of the damn drivers seat before the whole country goes over a cliff.!

"If we can get enough kids to grow old enough to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President's amusement." Rep. Pete Stark

Rep. Stark was talking about the fact that the Republicans and the President were expressing concern with finding enough money to fund the SCHIP bill but seemed to have no problem finding money to fund the Iraq war.

He was clearly angry and spoke with much passion, if not a lot of eloquence. I appreciated his remarks personally.

I just saw a CNN poll asking its viewers if Pete Stark should apologize to the President, 11% said he should and 89% said he should not. It appears I am not the only one who appreciates Rep. Starks passion.

Is Blackwater getting ready to go to war with the Iraqi government that the United States put in power? And whose side should our troops be on?

A defiant Blackwater Chairman Erik Prince said yesterday he will not allow Iraqi authorities to arrest his contractors and try them in Iraq's faulty justice system.

"We will not let our people be taken by the Iraqis," Mr. Prince told editors and reporters at The Washington Times. At least 17 of 20 Blackwater guards being investigated for their roles in a Sept. 16 shooting incident are still in a secure compound in Baghdad's Green Zone and carrying out limited duties.

"In an ideal sense, if there was wrongdoing, there could be a trial brought in the Iraqi court system. But that would imply that there is a valid Iraqi court system where Westerners could get a fair trial. That is not the case right now," said Mr. Prince.

So there exists the possibility that the Iraqis may decide to try and arrest the Blackwater guards they blame for killing their citizens, and that the Blackwater employees may use force to resist being arrested.

I literally thought that the Iraq situation could not possibly get any more volatile. And I am man enough to admit that I was very, very wrong.

George Bush knew he was going to start a war when he became President, and the evidence is buried in the No Child Left Behind law.

George Bush was sworn in as the 43rd President of the United States on January 20th, 2001.

The No Child Left Behind was passed by Congress on May 23rd, 2001.

We were attacked September 11, 2001.

We did not go into Afghanistan until October 7, 2001. And then invaded Iraq on March 20th, 2003.

So here is my question. If were not at war when the No Child Left Behind Law was first passed by Congress, and there seemed to be no war looming on the horizon, then why was this hidden in the law?

I mean what made the George Bush of 2001 think that the military would have trouble finding enough recruits during his term? It seems that the Army at least was having no problem meeting its recruitment goal.

I think it is obvious, at the very least, that George Bush always intended to drag this country into a war. And according to Bob Woodward Iraq was always in the cross hairs.

Now how do you feel about our country, our President, and our war?

The Bush administrations Counterterrorism Chief says country "not safer from terrorism then before Iraqi war". Then he got sick and resigned. Hmm.

Three days after Americans saw the Bush administration's counterterrorism chief say the Iraq war has likely not made the United States safer from terrorism, the official announced his resignation, citing health reasons.

On Monday, NBC News broadcast an interview with Redd in which he said that the U.S. was "probably" not safer from terrorism today than it was before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In the longer term, he said, "We'll wait and see."

Redd's comment apparently contradicted an assertion made by President Bush's top counterterrorism adviser, Fran Townsend, that the terrorist threat "would have been worse" if the United States had not invaded Iraq.

NCTC spokesman Carl Kropf said Redd's decision to leave was "absolutely not" related to his comments, and that he had not been pressured in any way to step down.

"And my family is NOT being held captive to ensure that I make these statements, and there are NOT snipers with rifles trained on me at this moment. Oh God, Bush is the devil!"

I think that the message that we must take from this is that "George Bush hates the truth!"

With my apologies to Kanye West.

Valerie Plame, the CIA agent outed by the Bush administration, has a book coming out Tuesday.

Four years after her CIA cover was blown in a newspaper column, Valerie Plame is settling scores with the Bush administration, Republican lawmakers and the journalists involved in the White House leak scandal.

Plame writes about the leak, the fallout and the perjury trial of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in her memoir, "Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House." The book is to be released Tuesday.

She offers harsh words for President Bush, whom she assails for administration "arrogance and intolerance." She also said criticism of her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, was a "dress rehearsal" for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth effort that impugned Sen. John Kerry's war record during his failed presidential campaign in 2004.

"It was classic Karl Rove: go after your enemy's strong point," Plame writes, saying Bush's former political adviser was behind both efforts. "In Joe's case it was that he told the truth; in Kerry's case, it was his exemplary military service."

I am NEVER going to get through all of these books that keep coming out!

However I just have to have this one. I followed this case much too closely to not see it to its conclusion. (And she is soooo attractive!)

Iran calmly explains why the world should ignore the rantings of a crazy person.

Iran Thursday shrugged off a warning by US President George W. Bush that its nuclear programme could lead to "World War III", saying his remarks only served to show Tehran's diplomatic success.

"These declarations show the anger of the United States against the success of Iran on the international stage," said Abdol Reza Rahmani Fazli, the deputy head of Iran's supreme national security council.

"The statements by the American President, who claims that Iran is seeking to make an atomic bomb, are part of a psychological war," he added.

I cannot tell you what an embarrassment it is to have the leader of our country appear to be more irrational then the leaders of Iran. I mean they are IRAN for God's sake!

All Bush is doing is helping Iran get the sympathy of the rest of the world, like Russia and North Korea, and making us look like we are warmongers bent on invading every country that we fantasize may be attempting to make nuclear weapons. I mean let's face it, we have a pattern emerging here.

Are the Atheists too angry?

What do you think?

With a new scandal cropping up every day, Richard Roberts takes a "temporary" leave of absence from robbing the University coffers.

Richard Roberts, the president of Oral Roberts University, has requested permission for a leave of absence amid allegations that he used school resources to fund his lavish lifestyle and support his political allies, according to the Associated Press.

"I don't know how long this leave of absence will last, but I fully trust the members of the Board of Regents," Roberts said in a statement released by the university. "I pray and believe that in God's timing, and when the Board feels that it is appropriate, I will be back at my post as president."

Well as the Ted Haggerty debacle proves, scandal ridden preachers who take a brief sabbatical from their jobs step right back into their roles with out incident.

Hee hee hee. Oh he is so out of there!

Get ready to Ruuuummmblle!!!

Pick two pairs of debaters. Put former U.S. senator Max Cleland and retired Army general Barry McCaffery on one side. Set up ex-White House guru Karl Rove and former Florida governor Jeb Bush opposite them.

Toss in a question: “Should America bring democracy to the world?”

Then let the feathers fly, leaving the preservation of civilization to a single moderator, PBS journalist Charlie Rose.

This will happen on Oct. 26. Witnesses will be charged $40. Splatter sheets will be provided to occupants of the first three rows.

So far as we know, this will be the first time Rove and Cleland have met. Many supporters of Cleland believe that Rove — during Cleland’s unsuccessful re-election campaign — was behind the TV ad that paired the triple-amputeed, Vietnam veteran with an image of Osama bin Laden.

I have $40! I have $40! Wait, where is it? Crap sometimes it just sucks to be so far away from the action.

I hope somebody posts all of the body blows and who threw what towel in when, so that I can steal it and post it here.

You know I might very well vote for him at this point.

Stephen Colbert announced his candidacy for president on "The Colbert Report" on Tuesday night, tossing his satirical hat into the ring of an already crowded race.

"I shall seek the office of the President of the United States," announced Colbert on his Comedy Central show, as balloons fell around him.

Colbert had recently satirized the coyness of would-be presidential candidates by refusing to disclose whether he would seek the country's highest office — a refusal that often came without any prompting.

His recent best-seller, "I Am American (And So Can You!)" afforded him the opportunity to mock the now-standard approach to a White House run, complete with a high-profile book tour.

Well he is erudite, quick witted, informed, photogenic, and able to see the irony in things around him. Sounds like a winner to me.

Bush is lying to us again.

Arrogant prick!

I hate watching his smug ass, but I thought there were a number of interesting exchanges.

I was struck by the fact that whenever a reporter asked him about quotes from another world leader like Putin or Jalal Talabani he acted like it was the first time he had heard of it. I just kept thinking "how uninformed is the leader of this country?" Don't you think he should be the FIRST to know these things?

He also completely shut down the reporter who asked about the Blackwater situation, though he did say he is ultimately responsible for their being in Iraq. Which in my mind means he is responsible for bringing them to justice.

He was also asked how he defined torture. His response was that whatever the legal definition was for torture is how he defined it. He did not allow a follow up question.

Well what can I say? I am just one man and there is only so much I can do.

To be serious about an issue that often elicits giggles, the best way for women to overcome this problem is to become comfortable with their bodies.

That's right I am promoting self pleasure. Does that really surprise anybody?

Retired Army Captains write an op-ed for the Washington Post.

As Army captains who served in Baghdad and beyond, we've seen the corruption and the sectarian division. We understand what it's like to be stretched too thin. And we know when it's time to get out.

What does Iraq look like on the ground? It's certainly far from being a modern, self-sustaining country. Many roads, bridges, schools and hospitals are in deplorable condition. Fewer people have access to drinking water or sewage systems than before the war. And Baghdad is averaging less than eight hours of electricity a day.

Iraq's institutional infrastructure, too, is sorely wanting. Even if the Iraqis wanted to work together and accept the national identity foisted upon them in 1920s, the ministries do not have enough trained administrators or technicians to coordinate themselves. At the local level, most communities are still controlled by the same autocratic sheiks that ruled under Saddam. There is no reliable postal system. No effective banking system. No registration system to monitor the population and its needs.

The inability to govern is exacerbated at all levels by widespread corruption. Transparency International ranks Iraq as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. And, indeed, many of us witnessed the exploitation of U.S. tax dollars by Iraqi officials and military officers. Sabotage and graft have had a particularly deleterious impact on Iraq's oil industry, which still fails to produce the revenue that Pentagon war planners hoped would pay for Iraq's reconstruction. Yet holding people accountable has proved difficult. The first commissioner of a panel charged with preventing and investigating corruption resigned last month, citing pressure from the government and threats on his life.

Well according to the Right wingers these guys are simply traitors and should not be listened to.

I, on the other hand, think that they are heroic truth tellers and I hope that everybody reads what they have to say.

It seems to me that, according once again to the Right wing, we have almost twice as many traitors as we do real patriots. They must just hate living here. Dare I suggest they leave?

Liberal radio talk show host Randi Rhodes is attacked.

Randi Rhodes was mugged on Sunday night on 39th Street and Park Ave, nearby her Manhattan apartment, while she was walking her dog Simon.

According to Air America Radio late night host Jon Elliott, Rhodes was beaten up pretty badly, losing several teeth and will probably be off the air for at least the rest of the week.

The article goes on to make accusations that this might be an attack on Rhodes because of her liberal views.

I find that kind of talk to be completely irresponsible.

You know many of us on the left make make note of how quickly the Right wingers attempt to make everything that they disagree with some kind of attack. A conversation about religion is an attack on Christianity, a disagreement about the war is the work of a traitor, any coverage of some of the criminal activity from this White House is simply because the press hates the President, and so on.

If we are going to define ourselves as the voices of reason we certainly cannot go down the same path. All we have heard is that Randi was attacked and badly injured. There has not even been an "official" confirmation as of yet. So let's leave the conspiracy theories in the back room for, at least, the time being.

Trust me when I say I would not put much past the Wingers or the White House, but I will have to have much more evidence before I "go there".

Update: It turns out Randi Rhodes WAS NOT MUGGED. She simply fell. I am not going to delete this post because the point I made about not jumping to conclusions is even more relevant in light of the facts. Let us strive to be careful people, there are Americans who may actually be listening to us.

Another one of our Alaskan Republican lawmakers gets jail time.

A federal judge on Monday said that former state Rep. Tom Anderson “sold the public trust” and sentenced him to five years in prison for seven felonies involving corruption in office.

The two-hour sentencing hearing came with a surprise: Anderson’s two former defense lawyers testified that he worked undercover nearly full-time for the FBI in the summer of 2005 in the hope of leniency.

Hmmm, I wonder if Anderson taped any conversations with this guy.

Well at least we are getting rid of our corrupt politicians. I certainly wish the rest of the country would do the same.

Hey how about we start with that lunatic in the White House?

Russian leader joins Iran in telling the United States to back off.

Putin has warned the U.S. and other nations against trying to coerce Iran into reining in its nuclear program and insists peaceful dialogue is the only way to deal with Tehran's defiance of a U.N. Security Council demand that it suspend uranium enrichment.

"Threatening someone, in this case the Iranian leadership and Iranian people, will lead nowhere," Putin said Monday during his trip to Germany. "They are not afraid, believe me."

It seems as if Bush is determined to sink every single one of America's diplomatic successes.

He creeped the German Chancellor Angela Merkel out with a surprise neck rub.

He has used up almost every bit of the British good will by dragging them into the Iraq war.

He has taken a tenuous peace with Iran and done everything he can to turn it into another ill fated war.

And now he has almost completely unraveled all of the work done by Reagan, his father, and Bill Clinton in building a positive relationship with Russia.

I have made the observation before that it almost seems like Bush is trying to destroy the very country that he claims to be protecting. He is either a traitor of the worse kind or the most inept man to ever hold the Presidency.

Republicans support our military unless they dare to disagree with their talking points about Iraq. And then they trun on them like rabid dogs.

From the securely closeted Lindsay Graham:

"I'm astounded, really," South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on CNN's "Late Edition" with Wolf Blitzer on Sunday.

Graham, who recently returned from Baghdad, said he and GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain had visited Sanchez several times in 2003 and 2004.

"Every time we talked to Gen. Sanchez, we got pushback -- we have enough troops; Guard and reserves aren't being strained," Graham said.

From the war lover John McCain:

"I wish that he had given us the benefit of that knowledge at the time," McCain told CBS's "Face the Nation." He said Sanchez should have spoken out at the time -- or resigned -- but "unfortunately, that doesn't happen very often."

From the man who desperately wanted to embarass Larry Craig into resigning:

Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, told ABC's "This Week" that Sanchez is simply wrong. "My definition of winning is a stable country and an ally in the war on terror," he said. "I think we're making significant progress toward that end."

What a bunch of hypocrites! We all know what happens to military careers if anyone speaks out against the Bush policies in Iraq. Hell even McCain lets that one slip.

One of the reasons few speak out, he said, is evidenced by what happened to former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, McCain said. Shinseki was sidelined after telling Congress that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed to occupy Iraq.

Yeah that could happen, or something much worse.

Larry Craig on Mitt Romney: "And he not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again."

When asked if Craig regrets his decision not to tell anyone about the July 11 incident in a men's bathroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Craig tells Lauer:

"It was a tough call, Matt, a very tough call....I was very, very embarrassed about it. I wrestled with it. I didn't want to embarrass my wife, my kids, Idaho and my friends. And I wrestled with it a long while. I sought no counsel. I made a very big mistake. I should have told my wife. I should have told my kids. And most importantly, I should have told counsel."

Craig tells Lauer: "I was very proud of my association with Mitt Romney. I'd worked hard for him here in the state. I was a co-chair of his campaign on Capitol Hill. And he not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again."

It looks like if Craig is going down he is taking everyone down with him.

I think that makes him my brand new favorite Republican!

P.S. Apparently Keith Olbermann used that exact phrase earlier this year. I did not even know that Keith knew Larry Craig. Hmmm.

Did we win in Iraq again? Wow one war two victorys, suck it WW2.

The U.S. military believes it has dealt devastating and perhaps irreversible blows to al-Qaeda in Iraq in recent months, leading some generals to advocate a declaration of victory over the group, which the Bush administration has long described as the most lethal U.S. adversary in Iraq.

But as the White House and its military commanders plan the next phase of the war, other officials have cautioned against taking what they see as a premature step that could create strategic and political difficulties for the United States. Such a declaration could fuel criticism that the Iraq conflict has become a civil war in which U.S. combat forces should not be involved. At the same time, the intelligence community, and some in the military itself, worry about underestimating an enemy that has shown great resilience in the past.

Now most of us are aware that al-Qaeda was really only a small part of the violence in Iraq. The Bush administration focused on them and puffed them up because it was an easy way to get more support for the war from angry Americans. But it was all bullshit.

And now they are afraid to say that the al-Qaeda threat is over because they have nothing to hide the civil war behind, and Americans are simply not in support of having our troops in Iraq while a civil war rages.

So what will they replace the al-Qaeda fear with? If you guessed Iran you win the prize.

Blackwater may be packing up for a trip soon.

U.S. and Iraqi officials are negotiating Baghdad's demand that security company Blackwater USA be expelled from the country within six months, and American diplomats appear to be working on how to fill the security gap if the company is phased out.

I wonder who will escort them to the airport?

The old "I am not gay, I am researching homosexuality by pretending to be gay" excuse. If I have heard it once I have heard it a million times.

In an interview with La Repubblica newspaper, Monsignor Tommaso Stenico said he frequented online gay chat rooms and met with gay men as part of his work as a psychoanalyst.

He said that he pretended to be gay in order to gather information about "those who damage the image of the Church with homosexual activity."

Stenico was secretly filmed making advances to a young man and asserting that gay sex was not sinful. In the Repubblica interview, Stenico said he had met with the young man and pretended to talk about homosexuality "to better understand this mysterious and faraway world which, by the fault of a few people -- among them some priests -- is doing so much harm to the Church."

You can't fault the man's logic. I mean if you want to learn about "this mysterious and faraway world" then what better way then to have lots of gay online sex and attempt to pick up young men? He should be fairly well versed in the gay lifestyle by now.

It is just another example that goes to support my supposition that some gays are attracted to the very places where they are the least welcome, the Christian church and the Republican party.

Stephen Colbert writes Maureen Dowd's column. Oh you have to read this!

I’d like to thank Maureen Dowd for permitting/begging me to write her column today. As I type this, she’s watching from an overstuffed divan, petting her prize Abyssinian and sipping a Dirty Cosmotinijito. Which reminds me: Before I get started, I have to take care of one other bit of business:

Bad things are happening in countries you shouldn’t have to think about. It’s all George Bush’s fault, the vice president is Satan, and God is gay.

There. Now I’ve written Frank Rich’s column too.

So why I am writing Miss Dowd’s column today? Simple. Because I believe the 2008 election, unlike all previous elections, is important. And a lot of Americans feel confused about the current crop of presidential candidates.

For instance, Hillary Clinton. I can’t remember if I’m supposed to be scared of her so Democrats will think they should nominate her when she’s actually easy to beat, or if I’m supposed to be scared of her because she’s legitimately scary.

After reading this I have come to one conclusion. Colbert should stick to television.

You just cannot really appreciate the Colbert experience without the raised eyebrow, the wagging finger, and the barely contained giggles when he makes a mistake.

So put down the word processor Stephen and get you ass back on my television making me laugh at the things that usually make me cry. And hurry because I already feel a tear forming.

Apparently my invitation got lost in the mail.

Members of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the nation's largest group of atheists and agnostics, are gathered this weekend for nonprayer breakfasts and raffles for God-free currency at the group's 30th annual convention.

Despite a new survey that shows most Americans still have negative views toward nonbelievers, it's been a pretty good year for atheism.

The foundation has added thousands of members, is starting a national talk radio show and claimed two legal victories in disputes with states in recent weeks. Meanwhile, a spate of books has been selling across the nation, spreading its message that religion is the root of many evils.

The reason that Atheists believe that religion is the root of many evils, is because without religion there is no "evil". Evil is a term coined by religion to describe anti-social behaviors that they could not understand. This was before we understood how the mind worked, or how other cultures may cling to traditions that seem inhuman to more civilized people.

I have seen many terrible things, but to label them "evil" would have been saying that I don't have the intellectual curiosity to attempt to understand why these things have taken place, and that is not how my mind functions.

And the idea that religious people dislike Atheists is not truly correct. Individually Christians may not have a problem with an atheist co-worker, finding them just as moral and trustworthy as their church going friends. It is when Atheism is described as a "movement", or they read that Atheists are attacking Christmas or other ridiculous news stories, that they get upset.

I actually think the same thing is true of the homosexual community. We are all just people trying to find the joy in our lives and respecting what brings joy to the lives of others.

The danger of Brand Recognition.

Hillary Clinton has a 21-point lead over fellow Democrat Barack Obama in New Hampshire, one of the first states to vote in the nominating process for the 2008 U.S. presidential election, a poll showed on Sunday.

In a poll by Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, 41 percent of likely Democratic voters support Clinton followed by 20 percent for Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois. Former Sen. John Edwards was third with 11 percent.

You know for awhile my conspiracy theorist antennae were up and I started thinking that Hillary's rapid rise indicated that the "fix was in". But now I am beginning to think it is simply the result of lazy Democrats.

I think for an unfortunately large segment of the potential primary voters, the name "Clinton" elicits a positive emotional response. Most Democrats still love Bill, can't have Bill, and therefore will settle for Hillary.

While on the other hand, many hear the name "Obama" which sounds like "Osama" and they are automatically turned off. This is patently unfair, but lets face it, the American people can be extremely lazy.

Now if you are here you are probably not a Hillary supporter. Or if you are it is because you have paid attention and liked what she has to offer. In other words you an informed person. Which means that you may still have a little skepticism and may be willing to change your mind if another candidate offers a more defined or powerful message. But you must count yourself in the minority.

My fervent hope is that Clinton will suffer some horrible public gaffe, that she cannot recover from before the primary.( A Howard Dean scream would be nice.) But that is very, very doubtful.

The only other hope is if Edwards and Obama change the game by offering themselves as a package deal. Their combined strengths would completely diffuse the Clinton lead. And let's face it, no Republican could possibly hope to beat them.

This thing is not over yet however, and I refuse to accept that Hillary is the anointed one.