License to Bork

Related to my earlier post, from Sizemore:

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If a Democrat would've said a SCOTUS nominee was "the worst nightmare of Conservative Republicans", Sheik Robertson and Osama Bin Falwell of the Tali-Born Again would be issuing fatwahs 24/7 on the Fox Propaganda Channel, resulting in a Republican filibuster. Thank you, Bill Frist, for giving our Democrats a license to Bork (and they better use it).

I can't say it enough, the Alito comfirmation will either be a turning point for the Dems or business as usual for the Repubs. It's time for the Dems to put up or shut up.

Update:

More from Steve Cobble at HuffPo.

Education

Looks like EveryNo Child Left Behind is getting a bit of an 'enhancement'. Whatever happened to the conservatives favoring less government?

Republican Osama

Jill makes sense when she says the latest Osama tape might be a Repub propaganda ploy.

Christian values

Shakes looks at a show that didn't air on ABC. I wonder why not?

...ABC says they were worried that some of the overt intolerance expressed by the white Christians toward the competitors, whose fates they held in their hands, may have turned off viewers before their evolutions into being, you know, nice...

Might just show how intolerant your average 'christian' really is. Might just show 'em for the racist assholes they really are.

Yes, please do

Rove tells Republicans to run on Bush's record

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House political adviser Karl Rove on Friday said Democratic critics of the Iraq war were wrong and Republicans should highlight the issue in November's congressional elections.

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Yes, as more kids die for a goal that moves farther away, please align yourself with Preznit Chickenhawk Coward. The Dems need all the help they can get.

Our worst nightmare

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told Republican Party activists on Friday night that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito was the "worst nightmare of liberal Democrats."

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Gee, I thought he was a moderate? I hope this gives the Dems enough cause to filibuster...but probably not. Losers.

Great thanks to DR.

Weekend reading

One of my sci-fi novels The Captains is up in its entirety. Nothing deep, just a sappy little love story set a couple hundred years in the future...during a war...in another galaxy...

Another year

And they'll let me reenlist.

WASHINGTON, Jan 18, 2006 (AFP) - The US Army said Wednesday it has raised its maximum enlistment age from 35 to 40 years old and is doubling signing up bonuses to a high of 40,000 dollars.

The measures are the latest in a series of steps the army has taken over the past year to offset a slump in recruiting as it faces ongoing campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Gotta love them 'last throes'.

Great thanks to Froggy, blogging at Skippy's.

Fluffy, Destroyer of Worlds*

Enigma has a great rant up about the illegal spying on American citizens by Chimpy Inc.

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And if one more little size 2 Twinkette in Vera Wang on the screen calls it "Eavesdropping" I may have to start throwing something sturdier than marshmallows at the TV. I am sick of Religous Geesus crap and Military uniforms paraded Fauntleroy Style across my screen giving speeches about protecting the Homeland. See after my home has been entered illegally numerous times in the past three years, I don't really know much about "security", especically at home. And some other time we can talk about what they did to my Medical Records and Library and Bookstore records. (or you can read my post from earlier in the month about Closing the Cafe).

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She's been dicked over for being a voice. This will happen to more and more people until these crooks and fascists are run outta Washington.

*Click the link and it'll make sense.

Misdirection

Republican scandal.
Republican corruption.
Republican mismanagement.
Republican ineptitude.

Oh look, shiny shit!

Cavity searches

From Kevin Hayden:

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In all the hoopla about Bush's illegal wiretaps, with civil libertarians suing for justice, one complicit group is seemingly getting off scot-free: the telecommunications companies. They acceded to the Bush encroachments on our freedom, rolling over on all Americans without objection.

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Thank God Google has the balls to stand up to the Chimp.

I don't want Molly Ivins mad at me...

If you think Left Blogtopia (y!sctp) is hard on the Dems for their jelly spine, go see Molly. I think she's about had it with 'em, especially Sen. Clinton. Thanks to Bob Geiger.

Oh come on, people -- get a grip on the concept of leadership. Look at this war -- from the lies that led us into it, to the lies they continue to dump on us daily.

You sit there in Washington so frightened of the big, bad Republican machine you have no idea what people are thinking. I'm telling you right now, Tom DeLay is going to lose in his district. If Democrats in Washington haven't got enough sense to OWN the issue of political reform, I give up on them entirely.

Bush, Cheney and Co. will continue to play the patriotic bully card just as long as you let them. I've said it before: War brings out the patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds on the grounds that dachshunds were "German dogs." They did not, however, go around kicking German shepherds. The MINUTE someone impugns your patriotism for opposing this war, turn on them like a snarling dog and explain what loving your country really means. That, or you could just piss on them elegantly, as Rep. John Murtha did. Or eviscerate them with wit (look up Mark Twain on the war in the Philippines). Or point out the latest in the endless "string of bad news."

Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as Republican-lite. If the Washington-based party can't get up and fight, we'll find someone who can.

I wish Molly wouldn't mince words so much. Ha!

The K Street Prescription

Paul Krugman via Tennesse Guerilla Women with another piece on the prescription scam and the influence of lobbyists. Go read. Last paragraph:

So I have a question for my colleagues in the news media: Why isn't the decision by the White House to stonewall on the largest corruption scandal since Warren Harding considered major news?

Good question.

Greater Georgelandia

Fiore, just for fun.

Why neocons can't stop landslide of 'Brokeback Mountain'

Great rant on the "culture war" being waged by the hardly-ever-right, by Mark Morford of the EssEffChron.

As soon as people begin realizing there's more to this brief little slice of existence than hate and war and the constant drumbeat of fear, there's always resistance, a reactive sneer at the idea that people might be waking up, even a little, and it's all in the name of protecting the status quo and defending the power base and not upsetting any of those carefully wrought prejudices, about making sure everyone stays quiet and doesn't ask any difficult questions of the Authority.

Religious groups make phone calls and complain. Big chunks of money get thrown into the pockets of sanctimonious politicians. Quasi-religious bonk-job leaders declare sex and music and gay people the source of all woe, vice and disease. Ugly new laws get passed. And yes, bitter, convulsive justices get appointed to the Supreme Court.

If you don't want to read the rest of it, have someone check your pulse.

Matthews should apologize

The Daou Report has a good piece on Lardass comparing Osama bin Laden to Michael Moore. Many links, hit 'em all. Don't miss it.

DEMAND AN APOLOGY: "Bin Laden sounds like Clint Eastwood" -- "Bin Laden sounds like Ron Silver" -- "Bin Laden sounds like Rush Limbaugh" -- "Bin Laden sounds like Bill O'Reilly"-- "Bin Laden sounds like Mel Gibson" -- "Bin Laden sounds like Bruce Willis" -- "Bin Laden sounds like Michelle Malkin"... Imagine the outrage on the right and in the press (but I repeat myself) if a major media figure spat out those words. Well, on Hardball, Chris Matthews just blurted out that Bin Laden sounds like Michael Moore. Simple: Matthews should apologize. On the air. This has NOTHING to do with Michael Moore and everything to do with how far media figures can go slandering the left.

Matthews might have stepped on it good this time. Let's hope he notices he's being called on it.

Dems choose, we lose

Following up on Fixer's post about having Col. Murtha respond to the SOTU, it appears the Dems are steppin' on their weenies again. From Arianna:

So the Democrats have chosen Virginia Governor Tim Kaine to deliver the party's response to President Bush's State of the Union speech. Chalk up another one for the What the Hell Are They Thinking? file.

On the same day that Osama Bin Laden's chilling warnings make it Red Alert clear that Bush's obsession with Iraq has not made us safer here at home -- and, indeed, has caused us to take our eye off the real enemy -- the Dems decide that the charge against Bush shouldn't be led by someone who can forcefully articulate why the GOP is not the party that can best keep us safe, but by someone whose only claim to fame is that he carried a red state.

Talk about clueless.

I know I've said this before and before, but the Democrats will never become the majority party until they can prove to the American people that they have a better plan for keeping us safe. And that means having someone like Jack Murtha give the State of the Union response -- someone with the authority to make the point that, on every level, Iraq is the wrong priority. And that the hundreds of billions already spent on Iraq (and the countless billions to come) would be better spent shoring up our ports, roadways, railways, securing our nuclear installations and chemical plants, and properly supporting our first responders.

I've got a better idea. Why don't the Democrats reconsider their choice and pick someone more able than Kaine to make the national security argument? They don't even have to make a big deal out of the switch. Kaine can simply come down with a really, really bad cold that night. Cough, cough... and Murtha is waiting in the wings.

The Friday before the 2004 election, bin Laden re-emerged from another protracted silence and released another tape, dominating the news. But instead of aggressively making the point that his reappearance proved that Bush had failed to make America safer, Democratic strategists flinched and had Kerry focus on the economy instead. And we all remember how well that turned out.

The question is: Do the leaders of the Democratic Party remember?

My question is: what has to happen before the Dems learn that we are in the fight of our lifetime against this administration's evil agenda. Why do they insist on lobbing softballs when what's called for is a line drive to the enemy's head?

Friday Cattle Dog Blogging

Dad, if you take my picture, I'm gonna bite you in the . . . [click, flash]

A good week

Last week was a miserable Democratic failure and I gave 'em Hell for it. This week was much better. Democrats showed some ball. Clinton, Gore, and Kerry scored well and there was little Republican counterpunch. The weak faux outrage over the use of the word 'plantation' is not reminiscent of the Republican best and withered a news cycle later. And, just to throw a little more cold water on the Repubs' already shriveled weenies, Osama bin Forgotten pops up to remind the Chimp they are still joined at the hip. Shouldn'ta got all John Wayne on us 4 years ago because all anybody remembers is "Dead or Alive" and he still is.

So I ask you all; how does it feel? How does it feel to win one? How does it feel to see the Repubs back up a step? How does it feel to see that look in the bully's eyes after someone hits him back. "Hey, maybe I pushed this guy too far?" Because that's what the Dems did this week. They showed unity and strength and the Repubs had to shut up. Feels pretty good to me.

So I ask the Dems today, because it's Friday, are you gonna forget the lesson you learned this week by the time Monday rolls around? It's time to do the same with Alito. Stand up, say no, and take that idiot from Nebraska, who said he'd vote for Alito, out back and set him straight. Filibuster, I'm beggin' ya.

Long time, no see

(CNN) -- CIA officials believe an audiotaped message threatening the United States is from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who warns that plans for terror attacks are under way -- and also offers a "long-term truce."

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Just the fact this guy is still breathing is grounds for impeaching the Chimp.