Florida and Michigan resolved

They will seat all the delegates, who will get half a vote each. That is what the state parties requested, and it was agreed to.

Iraq is a whole bunch of sand. So the soldier above asked his girlfriend to send soil, fertilizer and grass seed so he could do THAT with the strip in front of his tent.

Karl is upset

According to Karl Rove, Scott McClellan was "out of the loop."

"This doesn't sound like Scotty... it sounds like a left-wing blogger. " - Karl Rove, whining like an infant

Gee, Karl, considering the fact that, according to Scott, you LIED TO HIM, and sent him out to repeat your lies, thus shredding his own reputation, it's no surprise if he's not feeling all that fond of you.


And "out of the loop"? He was the PRESS SECRETARY. His JOB was to know what was going on so he could answer reporters' questions.

Rove is saying that Bush kept his OWN PRESS SECRETARY "out of the loop"?

That sort of proves McClellan's claims - doesn't it?

Scott needs a tissue

"I had allowed myself to be deceived into unknowingly passing along a falsehood." - Scott McClellan

Scottie, if you didn't know that they were liars, you were the only one.

Part of me wants to say, "Good - the insects who have left the underside of the rock are turning it over." But I can't have much sympathy for people who participated in this trash year after year, without objection, enabling the most criminal administration ever, and then suddenly turn into whistle blowers when it costs them nothing, and they can gain from it.

Right-wingers' heads explode

Jenna Bush tells Ellen She Can Use the Ranch for Her Same-Sex Wedding

People Magazine reports that in an appearance on Ellen to air this Wednesday, First Daughter Jenna Hager (nee Bush), sitting with her mother First Lady Laura Bush, tells Ellen DeGeneres that she can use the President's ranch in Crawford for DeGeneres' pending same-sex wedding with actress Portia de Rossi.

"So, the ranch was a great place to get married," DeGeneres says, "it looked like nobody could fly over and get pictures or bother you, really."

"Yeah," says Hager, "that was really nice."

"So, can we borrow it for our wedding," DeGeneres asks. "Can we get the ranch?"

"Sure," says Hager.

"Okay, great," says DeGeneres.

Lest we forget

I have a Rendezvous with Death

I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air—
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.

It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath—
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear.

God knows 'twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear . . .
But I've a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.

Alan Seeger 1888-1916


The Iraq Page

Congratulations

To an all-time great:



Al Jaffee, who is 87 years old and drew his 400th Mad Fold-In back in March, not to mention being the creator of Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions and god-knows-many weird comic inventions, just won the Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year.

What took them so long?

Here's a whole bunch of interactive Mad Fold-Ins.

Sic Transit Copria Mundi

The website for the Project of the New American Century has been shut down

What a guy

John McCain may not care if we're in Iraq for another hundred years, he may not know the difference between Sunni and Shi'ite, he may know nothing about the economy, he may be ready to overturn Roe v. Wade - but hell, the man can barbecue.



Brought to you by your pathetic press.

DON'T MESS WITH THE BRONX

Pretty much the entire 8th-grade of School 318 in the Bronx has decided to protest Standardized Testing. They turned in blank papers. All of them.

Not on tests that actually count. That's the problem. They don't. They are "practice exams," and the students are being used as unpaid guinea pigs by the companies that make the tests. If they fill in all the bubbles in a satisfactory manner, then the company sells the test to schools in the suburbs. Three hours taking a test that doesn't matter, and that benefits them not at all.

So they told the school to go take a flying fuck at the moon. (Hey, it IS the Bronx, ok?)

Kids today - chips off the old block, ya know?

Remember John Kerry? He has something to say.

John Kerry has become persona non grata and solely the fodder of late-night talk show hosts. Such is the fate of all Democratic candidates who have the effrontery to lose. We eat our own.

Reading his Op-Ed in today's Washington Post made me remember why I liked him in the first place.

Lost in the rhetoric was the question America deserves to have answered: Why should we engage with Iran?

In short, not talking to Iran has failed. Miserably.

Breakin up is hard to do.

John Hagee, the insane evangelist that John McCain went a-courtin, has finally become such a liability that McCain cut him loose.

After all, he just said that the Nazis were obeying God's will.

Catholic-bashing, and openly wanting a nuclear war in the Middle East SHOULD have been enough, but hey - that's small stuff.

The question is - will John McCain repudiate all of the people who share such views, or will he continue to pander to the Insane Base as long as they don't get too much unfavorable press?

You know the answer to that.

Rove Subpoenaed

I'll be impressed when he actually show up.

Unfortunately, I have a feeling that he'll just blow off a Congressional subpoena, and Congress will do nothing about it.

I hope I'm wrong. Maybe they're actually growing some balls, now that Bush is almost gone, and they actually have an election coming.

That duck is so lame, he's paraplegic.

WASHINGTON - In a stunning vote that illustrated President Bush's diminished standing, the Senate on Thursday ignored his veto threat and added tens of billions of dollars for veterans and the unemployed to his Iraq war spending bill...

But the spectacle of 25 Senate Republicans abandoning the White House and voting to extend jobless benefits by 13 weeks and boost the GI Bill to provide veterans enough money to pay for a four-year education at a public institution made it plain that Bush's influence is waning.

"He has no political capital left," said Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah.

The Republicans claim of supporting the troops is a travesty. It's travesty of a mockery. It's a mockery of a sham. They've almost unanimously voted against every single veterans' benefit package that has come up.

So why can't the Democrats just SAY so? How come the Republicans routinely attack the other party's patriotism with impunity. They look at that Democrats and yell, "You don't support the troops!" and the Democrats just stand there haplessly saying. "Yes, we do. We really do. Honest."

Why can't the Democrats just SAY "Republicans almost unanimously voted against every single veterans' benefit package that has come up. Democrats have almost unanimously voted for them."

I don't see why that's so hard.

The Republicans are at least honest.

They have floated a new slogan: "The Change You Deserve."

Yes, it's pathetic that the Republicans are running on "change" - which basically means that they are running against THEMSELVES and the last 8 years. But better is that the slogan is already in use.

For an anti-depressant drug call "Effexor."

According to the drug's manufacturers:

"Common side effects may include nausea, dizziness, sleepiness, sweating, dry mouth, gas, abnormal vision, nervousness, insomnia, loss of appetite, constipation, confusion, agitation, tremors, yawning, palpitations, and increased cholesterol."

Sounds like the Republicans, alright.

Supporting the Troops

"No president in history has vetoed a benefits bill for those who served. … The Republican party is on the block here, to clearly demonstrate that they value military service or suffer the consequences of losing the support of people who’ve served. … The president has a choice here to show how much he values military service." - Senator Jim Webb

It's time that the Democrats stopped letting the Republicans get away with claiming to support the troops, when they do NOTHING that does the troops any good whatsoever.

If you have 23 minutes and 41 seconds

Look at Obama's press conference.

How bad have the last 8 years been when simple intelligence and bluntness seems so refreshing?

Holy crap

“Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain,'’ Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign bus after a speech in Columbus, Ohio. “I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home.'’

Johnny-boy? Reagan didn't "sit down in a negotiation" with Iran - he traded them weapons.

And he wasn't even President at the time - Carter was.

Did you actually FORGET that?

How impressive

In a speech in Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday, Republican presidential candidate John McCain says he believes the Iraq war can be won by 2013.

Wow. McCain believes that the United States of America can subdue a third-world country in only ten years.

Just two-and-a-half times longer than it took to beat Nazi Germany and Japan, which were strong enough to damned near conquer the world.

Says a LOT about the current Commander-In-Chief, doesn't it?

Chris Matthews Pwns.

I don't even LIKE Chris Matthews, but this is great.

Too many troops have PTSD, so stop diagnosing it.

That directive came from Bush's VA.The VA "suggested" that their employees misdiagnose, because too many had PTSD.

As usual, "support the troops" means "use them as cannon fodder, and then ignore them."

50-state strategy

Guess what party just won a seat in Mississippi?


Mississippi.

And it wasn't close. Childers won with 54% in a place where the Republican got 66% just two years ago.

"The victory by Travis Childers, a conservative Democrat elected in a once-steadfast Republican district on Tuesday, was the third defeat of a Republican in a special Congressional race this year. In addition to foreshadowing more losses for the party in November, the outcome appeared to call into question the belief that Senator Barack Obama of Illinois could be a heavy liability for his party’s down-ticket candidates in conservative regions. Republicans had sought to link Mr. Childers to Mr. Obama in an advertising campaign there."

This, coupled with John McCain trying to be an environmentalist and setting a timetable for Iraq withdrawal, tells you one thing: the Republicans have George W, Bush around their necks like an albatross, and are getting desperate to shake him off.

Sorry - that carcass stinks too badly.

Polar Bears

It's official.

And it's time that those who still deny global warming are treated as the cranks and nuts that they are. There is no reason to act as though these people still have a legitimate point of view.

Sweetie

The apology was well done, but Obama had better learn to curb his tongue, or he'll be chewed up and spit out.

This may help.

Hillary Clinton and Obama have both signed deals with the DNC to raise money to elect Democrats - no matter which one is nominated,

Bush's Great Sacrifice

I WOULD make a snarky comment, but I can't: this is just TRAGIC.

He sacrificed GOLF?

Didn't I read a few years ago that he gave up CANDY?

And you can tell that he thinks he's saying something really IMPRESSIVE.

WHAT IN THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HIM?

Seriously - is the President of the United States just completely NUTS?


Here's Keith Olbermann on the subject.

Edwards is endorsing Obama.

It's official.

I have tried very hard to stay out of this internecine squabble, because some of it has gotten rather ugly, and the ugliness has risked jeopardizing what's REALLY important: getting the criminals and psychopaths OUT of the Government and fixing the damage of the last eight years.

Barack Obama will be a big step in that direction.

Hillary Clinton would have been also.

John McCain in the White House, however, would mean that the bastards have won.

And the most important thing is to keep the bastards from winning.

Run, Bob, Run

I say we start a letter writing campaign persuading Bob Barr to run for President.

Former Rep. Bob Barr says a number of Republicans have been trying to persuade him not to run for president on the Libertarian Party ticket, but none has given him a convincing reason.

The former Republican congressman from Georgia formed an exploratory committee last month and told The Washington Times he has since been subjected to the behind-the-scenes pressure from Republicans not to run.

Mr. Barr says even people who have tried to dissuade him understand why he thinks it important to raise issues from what he calls a "genuinely conservative" perspective and to offer alternatives to the positions of the two major-party candidates.

Isn't the economy doing great?

You know how good everything is when there are gated community ghost towns.

Happy Mothers Day

As a special Mother's Day gift to America, the Republicans have voted against mothers and Mother's Day.

I'm actually not joking.

On Wednesday afternoon, the House had just voted, 412 to 0, to pass H. Res. 1113, "Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day," when Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), rose in protest.

"Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote," he announced.

Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), who has two young daughters, moved to table Tiahrt's request, setting up a revote. This time, 178 Republicans cast their votes against mothers.

Here's the actual text of the bill.

And here's the vote.

Don't you just love politics?

Horrors! MLK "confrontational!"

WASHINGTON (AP) — The centerpiece for the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on the National Mall has drawn criticism from a federal arts panel, which says the proposed statue looks "confrontational" and resembles the head of a socialist state more than a civil rights leader.

Models of the 28-foot tall statue depict King emerging from a chunk of granite, his arms folded in front of his chest, his legs firmly rooted, an intense gaze on his face.

Why is there this perception that Dr. Martin Luther King was some sort of inoffensive teddy bear?

Just in case you weren't aware (and apparently, lots of people aren't): he WAS confrontational. VERY, VERY confrontational.

If he was around today, the right-wingers would be calling him every name in the book.

In fact, they might STILL feel the need to shoot him just to make him stop.

Straight Talk

Crooked Dealings.

PRESCOTT, Ariz. -- Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers].

Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain's 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks.

Not that McCain's base - the Washington Press Corps - will make a big deal out of this. After all, there's no blowjob involved.

Rumsfeld: It's THEIR fault!

Pathetic.



How do you know that Iraq was handled really, really badly? I mean, aside from the fact that you're sane?

Because Rumsfeld is passing the buck.

Sorry, Rummy, that turd is sitting in YOUR lap.

A post-American world

This is damned depressing, but needs to be faced.

“President Bush has fucked everything up so much, he’s even made it hard for a white man to become president!” - Chris Rock

How to really piss off a southerner

Fly one of these:

Congress is threatening to subpoena Rove.

I'd like to get excited about that. Unfortunately if the past is any indication, they'll subpoena him, he'll say "Fuck you, I ain't coming," and they'll just shrug their shoulders.

The war is still over.

Five years ago yesterday. That's how long it's been since Commander Codpiece declared "Mission Accomplished."

More of Bush's greatest hits

Nelson Mandela is a terrorist.

This is where many Americans get their information.

Which explains a lot.