CA-04 Update

It's sneakin' up on election day again out here in Kahl-ee-for-nya. Here's Charlie Brown's new TV ad that just started airing this week:



More stuff at Charlie Brown for Congress.

Since John Doolittle is "retiring" (Repug-speak for 'got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and may end up in jail') from his House seat, we have a run-off primary for two carpetbaggers who have come in from out of district.

Kos on Tom McClintock:

T-Mac's name may be familiar to many of you: he has run failed campaigns for U.S. Representative (1992), State Controller (1994 and 2002), Governor of California (2003), and Lieutenant Governor (2006).

Quite a laundry list of failure.

Still, the man is determined. Enough so that he's willing to travel 400 miles from his home in the L.A. area to run for this open seat.

Mind, he can't actually move out there. That would necessitate abandoning his State Senate seat, as he actually has to be a resident of his Senate district according to California law.

Also at Kos, from one of our esteemed readers, American River Canyon, on Doug Ose:

This isn't all of it but I have to stop somewhere. I am wondering just how much oblivion "Beau" Ose thinks CA- 04 voters exist in, to believe that someone who so richly supported the last un indicted Abramoff money benefactor during the time said un indictee was trying to hide his ongoing DOJ investigation from the media and public, is actually going to Washington to help "clean up." Then he's implying they all need another tax break.

Let me suggest the new Beauregard Ose Campaign Motto:
"John Doolittle deserves a tax break just like normal, law abiding citizens. Help send me to DC to DeNy he Did Anything Wrong and Make Sure He Gets One."

ARC's on the CA-04 race like white on rice here.

The smart money's on Ose. He's got the most money, moved to the district, and is the 'moderate' Repug. The wingnuts call him a Liberal. Heh.

You can keep up with this exciting stuff at PolitickerCA-04. Like Charlie's doing:

Please click quietly so's not to wake my next congressman.

Quote of the Day

From 'Nucks, before I split:

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A hundred million and no tax info for us. Gee darling, if it was good enough for Theresa, it’s good enough for you.

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What to say?

Via Maru, I'm flabbergasted.

WASHINGTON — More than 43,000 U.S. troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the weeks before their scheduled deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003 were sent anyway, Pentagon records show.

This reliance on troops found medically "non-deployable" is another sign of stress placed on a military that has sent 1.6 million servicemembers to the war zones, soldier advocacy groups say.

...

43,000???!!!!! That's a third of the force, not just a couple admin weenies with strep. You can bet a good portion of those guys are carrying rifles, going on regular patrol rotations.

So tell me, Republicans, how is our 'great victory' (I'm still waiting for the Chimp's statue to rise in Baghdad) supposed to come about when a third of our troops there are basically 'walking wounded' in one form or another? Motherfuckers.

Thank god it's Friday. Mrs. F comes home from that other coast tonight. Yay! Off to the shop ...

Flag criminals ... revisited

For anyone who's ambivalent about the flag officer 'analysts' who go on the news to give their 'opinion', Media Matters will set you straight:

Following the publication of the April 20 New York Times front-page article on the hidden ties between media military analysts and the Pentagon, the Department of Defense has released to the public numerous documents regarding the analyst program. One of the documents released is an audio recording of an April 18, 2006, meeting that several military analysts attended with then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Peter Pace, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During the meeting, one of the attendees tells Rumsfeld, "[W]e get beat up on television sometimes when we go on and we are debating" and says that he would "personally love" for Rumsfeld "to take the offensive, to just go out there and just crush these people so that when we go on, we're -- forgive me -- we're parroting, but it's what has to be said. It's what we believe in, or we would not be saying it." The individual adds: "And we'd love to be following our leader, as indeed you are. You are the leader. You are our guy." The transcript released by the Pentagon does not identify the person who made this comment; the Pentagon has provided this list of "confirmed" "[p]articipants." Media Matters for America has documented the consistent unwillingness of most of the outlets mentioned in the Times article to discuss the military analyst story. Will media outlets try to determine if they have hosted the person who asserted that Rumsfeld was "our guy" and suggested that he would "parrot[]" Rumsfeld's statements? [my ems]

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And just a thought: If they actually believed that war in Iraq was "the right thing", I'm glad none of 'em ever was my CO. Come on, if an old Buck Sergeant (me) knew beforehand that the war would turn into a mess, these guys surely did. They should be hanging from the same tree as the civilians in the Bush administration.

Great thanks to Nicole for the link. Cross-posed at API.

The Texas Way

A Japanese doctor said, 'Medicine in my country is so advanced
that we can take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and
have him looking for work in six weeks.'

A German doctor said, 'That's nothing, we can take a lung out
of one person , put it in another, and have him looking for work in
four weeks.'

A British doctor said, 'In my country, medicine is so
advanced that we can take half of a heart out of one person, put it
in another, and have them both looking for work in two weeks.'

A Texas doctor, not to be outdone said, 'You guys are way
behind. We took a man with no brains out of Texas, put him in
the White House and now half the country is looking for work!'


JG.

Another one bites the dust ...

Staten Island's own Vito Fossella crashes and burns, another 'moral values' hypocrite is shown for what he really is:

After admitting earlier today that he had an extramarital affair and fathered a child out of wedlock, Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.), who was nailed for drunk driving last week, was spotted today huddling with the House chaplain in the back of the chamber during floor debate.

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Even though GOP officials privately say Fossella has little choice but to step aside for the good of the party, the congressman did not say in his statement today whether he would seek reelection. "Making any political decisions right now are furthest from my mind," he said.

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Don't let it hit you in the ass, sucka. Your Republican Party, liars, cheats, and hypocrites. Yo, Vito, see yas around ...

They will not go to prison in vain either

Click to make them even bigger liars, insofar as such a thing is humanly possible

"There once was a ne'er-do-well souse..."

Go read this at Raw Story.

Cusack slams corporate media, talks up new movie 'War, Inc.' in wide-ranging interview

They've got a limerick contest goin' on, and you can win attendance at either a NYC or LA screening and meet Cusack and Rachel Maddow, be still my heart! I wrote three of them, although they didn't appear right away if they will at all, and all I could remember was the first line of one that is the title of this post.

Get hot, you limerickeers. Make us proud.

Update:

My comment came up, and with the touch of a finger I 'remembered' my limericks, lucky you!

There once was a ne'er-do-well souse,
Though self-thought a hero, a louse,
Neoconned up a boil
Of war, profit, and oil,
A war criminal in the White House.

In order to show up his Dad,
He started a war, foul lad.
"Some may find it heresy
but I must have a legacy -
Oil and profit is there to be had."

On the criminal war in Iraq,
Once started, it's hard to turn back.
On this Bush is counting
Though disaster is mounting,
And the troops have their ass in a crack.

I coulda come up with lots more of 'em, but I had to go to the bathroom and get more coffee so I could keep going to the...

Re-Up (shudder) Date:

Never being one to leave well enough alone, I did 'em another. Surprisingly, their comment moderator let it pass:

For president we got a dry drunk,
A coward, a sniv'ler, a punk.
With five minutes alone
I'd make him atone,
He'd heal for a week in his bunk.

It's almost too easy.

The main reason the Dem primary needs to be over

Crooks and Liars

This is one of those clips that makes you want to throw things at your tee vee. (please don’t!) Matthews and Russert admit that MSNBC can’t — or refuses to — multi-task. The basic message was this: as long as there is a campaign battle between Obama and Clinton, they MUST ignore John McCain. Russert even admits to being flooded with e-mails about their abysmal McCain coverage, but he tells Democrats to just be patient, when the time is right, they’ll pay attention to the train wreck of a campaign being run by the aging senator from Arizona:

This is outrageous. McCain is only out of the media spotlight because the McCain Media takes him out — intentionally — and it is detrimental to our election process. The free pass allows McCain to continue to raise more money, look more presidential than he really is and garner good poll numbers, which gives him advantages he doesn’t deserve and wouldn’t otherwise get if he were properly scrutinized. Timmeh says they’ve been flooded with e-mails about this, but he ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Send an e-mail to MSNBC and let them know that it is completely unacceptable to tell us that we have to wait for any amount of time or any reason before we see balanced coverage and scrutiny of John McCain’s disastrous campaign.

We’re going to hold on to this clip and refer to it often…

Note to Tweety 'n Timmeh: The Dem thing's just about over. Get hot on that old bastard. If your bosses let you. I'll believe it when it happens.

McJustasfuckinbadasbush

Author Cliff Schecter Discusses "The Real McCain" with BuzzFlash.com -- And It ain't a Pretty Picture

Shorter: McCain's an even worse human being than Bush. I didn't think that was possible, but it seems it is. Take everything bad about Bush, particularly the fat mouth, desire for revenge, lack of moral values despite what he says, the win-at-any-cost even when you know you're wrong you're right because you're you mentality, I could go on and on, then add old age, core-deep crankiness and a spiteful nasty temper.

Normally I don't wish harm to my fellow man, but I'll make yet another exception for McCain: I wish him a veggie stroke prior to the election preceded by a public meltdown. Public, so the media can't ignore it any more and so we'll notice the difference.

Insufficient corruption ...

Avedon:

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It's not bad enough that Bush has refused to allow votes to fill empty FEC seats unless the corrupt Spakovsky is confirmed along with them - now he wants to kick out another one for failing to be sufficiently corrupt.

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Now why wouldn't the Chimp want the Federal Election Commission at full strength in an election year? If he can't have his man running the show, he'll assure whatever staff is left is too overwhelmed to do their jobs properly.

Add this to the fact the media is in the tank for McCain (and the power of the Republican Noise Machine to influence public opinion) and you understand why I'm not as optimistic as many in Left Blogtopia (y!sctp!) about our chances in November.

Gun to their heads ...

Via our pal Montag, seems DoD is using soldiers' pay as leverage over Congress to pass the latest war appropriation:

In an announcement that puts troops and their families in the middle of a political dispute, a Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday that the Army will not be able to pay soldiers after June 15 unless Congress approves an emergency war funding bill.

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How about putting war expenditures on the federal budget instead of trying to pay for them out of the petty cash box? How about giving us some idea of how the money will be spent and how much more you'll need until we get out of there? As the Chimp likes to say when he pushes his tax cuts "it's the taxpayers' money". This war started out as a 6 month, $50 billion effort. Five years and hundreds of billions (if not trillions) of dollars later, not to mention over 4000 US lives, and they're holding the soldiers hostage for appropriations. Nothing is beneath these assholes.

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[Rep. John] Murtha said there is no threat to military paychecks and that it is inappropriate for the Pentagon to try to involve soldiers and their families in a political dispute over how much money is needed to pay for ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and exactly when the money is needed.

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Murtha said threatening paychecks is a mistake. “It is unacceptable for them to say something like that,” he said. “It is unacceptable for the Pentagon to make a political statement like that, scaring troops and their families in time of war. [my em]

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20 January can't come soon enough.

Cross-posted at API.

Quote of the Day

D. Aristophanes:

...

The other point worth noting is that the Dems may give us a centrist waffler, but the GOP will give us an insane person with one hand on the lever to the bomb bay doors and the other jamming the maxed-out credit card of our national debt into Corporate America slots that give worse odds than an arcade claw machine and charge a thousand-point vig.

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Neither Dem was my first, or second, choice but either is far better than McInsane.

Hillary Clinton: The Psycho Ex-Girlfriend of the Democratic Party

It's 2:31 AM. The Democratic Party is sleeping peacefully when it hears its phone buzz on the night stand. It rolls over and sees "Hillary" on the caller ID. It pauses briefly, considering pushing "END" and not dealing with this shit tonight. The thought is appealing but the Democratic Party knows that if it doesn't take this call, another one is only minutes away.

More here: http://madatoms.com/2008/05/edit-hillary-clinton-psycho-ex.html

JG.

Whaaaa...?

Ya gotta go read this one in the LATimes:

SAN DIEGO -- U.S. border authorities no longer apprehend illegal immigrants only as they enter the country. Now they're catching them on the way out.

Federal agents say the checkpoints are a productive way to stop dangerous criminals, drug shipments and money launderers.

Fair warning to anyone with a big load of dope trying to smuggle it into Mexico!

Note to ICE: If ya wanta stop money going to Mexico, bust the little brown guys who are slipping giros into the post office mail slots on Friday afternoons.

I'm sure, given Bush's non-policy on immigration, that this emigration policy makes perfect sense to someone.

Amnesia is a blessing

Or maybe it's the pills. She must take a lot of 'em to try and forget what she's married to. Can't say as I blame her.

No Comment...

Parliament or Bust

Click to embiggen

AFP

Miss Great Britain vowed to "put the beauty back into politics" Monday as she launched a bid to get elected to parliament that could get Prime Minister Gordon Brown sweating.

She could make me sweat! Beats the shit out of Maggie Thatcher.

Why No HageeGate? Timmeh Explains

CJR expands on our earlier post:

RUSSERT: He sure did. There’s been a lot of chatter on that, you know, about Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson’s comments after September 11th. If there was video of Hagee, it makes all the difference in the world….

If only there were video of Hagee. Then the Russerts of the world, Russert seems to imply, might have paid a bit more attention to him. Readily-available visual clips, you see, would have made “all the difference in the world.”

Clips like… this one? There for the taking since January on YouTube (a fact that Frank Rich led with in the column that Imus and Russert were discussing— complete with instructions for the uninitiated on exactly how to summon a Hagee clip on the YouTubes)?

Translation: Of course I, Tim Russert, helped to nudge the Wright story into the mainstream with one of my signature timely, hard-driving debate questions but, in fairness, what really “broke it out” was “that video that got on the reel and it kept playing over and over and over again” (How did that video get on that reel and manage to play itself repeatedly? On my show, even?). Meanwhile, McCain has “been given this grace period” by…well, by me and my peers.

The timely, hard-driving Russert has his orders, written on his paycheck: Ignore the evil that McCain's supporters do because we want him for our next Bush. Hate-filled, garbage-spewing, right-wing fool preachers are OK because they're on our side. And they're white. Left-wing hate-filled, garbage-spewing fool black preachers are scary, you know, black. Plays well to the base, useful idiots to a man, without whom McCain wouldn't stand even the same ghost of a chance he does now.

McCain says "League of Nations" needs to deal with Iran

Very slightly not exactly what he said, but senility is funny sometimes anyway. Americablog, video and comments:

Too bad the League of Nations was disbanded in 1946 when John McCain was ten years old. Oh, and one of our commenters added this:

Reminds me of Mr. Burns at the Post Office:

"Yes, I'd like to send this letter to the Prussian consulate in Siam by aeromail. Am I too late for the 4:30 autogyro?"

Time fer yer nap, Johnnie. Don't ferget yer drool bucket.