"Prick any conservative and the kink oozes out."

I had not heard the theory about the corruptness and hypocrisy of conservative politicans put that way before, but I like it.

I also like the rest of Nina Burleigh's post about finding some sympathy for Senator Larry Craig:

Because we are people of compassion, we should also feel a little horrified by this tortured man's sad, humiliating demise. He's obviously lived his whole life afflicted by the religious psychobabble and outright bigotry of people who say homosexuality is a sickness and a lifestyle decision instead of an innate state of being that has nothing to do with illness or choice.

The sickness, of course, is in the suppression, which is why closeted men seek love in rank public bathroom stalls.

Does Dodd have "The Buzz"?

Chris Dodd got all kinds of great media attention yesterday after the IAFF endorsement. Today, I see this post on the Huffington Post highlighting Dodd:

Yesterday, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) stepped up to the patriot's task and gave the American Freedom Campaign the following statement:

"It's a sad day when a presidential candidate actually has to talk about restoring the Constitution, but that's where we are after this administration's assault on the rule of law -- an assault, by the way, that actually makes us less secure and more isolated by weakening our standing around the world. I have said repeatedly that if elected, the *FIRST THING* I would do after being sworn in is to reverse as much of the damage done to the Constitution by President Bush as possible. And I would immediately do as much as I legally can by executive order."

Chris Dodd is acting like an American. He should be congratulated. But the rest of the candidates should be ashamed -- at least for now. We know they are aware of our efforts, since they have all received thousands of emails from supporters of the American Freedom Campaign. In some cases, calls to the candidates to defend the Constitution have been even more direct.

Wonder what sort of coverage he'll get over Labor day weekend...

Fire Fighters Union Endorses Dodd. Anyone Surprised?

Read my blog post on Plunderbund.

Vick and diapers

Okay, I know it's a Friday, at the end of summer, but does this stuff really constitute as news (and Breaking News, no less)??

- Someone named Michael Vick who gets paid a lot of money to play a sport is pleading guilty to something having to do with being a bad person.

- The sad female astronaut - who we all remember (because it was "reported" incessantly) wore diapers to drive cross country to attack another woman who was also dating her cheating boyfriend - was in court asking to have her ankle tracker removed.

- And more old news about a child molester who has already been convicted of horrible crimes gets sentenced in Florida.

- Then, there are those pictures and video of that poor little 5-year-old Iraqi boy who was set on fire. Very sad, compelling even, but does CNN need to air it every 5 minutes?!

Ahhhh! Does this remind anyone else of the summer of sharks immediately preceding 9/11? Maybe it's just me...

If this weren't so sad...

...it would be funny.

Via Political Animal:

Here's the new press policy at the NHTSA, the federal agency in charge of auto safety. (1) Agency experts are no longer allowed to talk to reporters on the record. (2) The communications office (!) is not allowed to talk to reporters on the record. (3) The agency's administrator is not available to talk on the record about the policy barring staffers from talking on the record. (4) Her chief of staff explained to a reporter that "we were finding a lot of stuff did not need to be on the record," but then insisted that this statement itself was off the record.

I can at least laugh through my tears, I guess!

Books, books and more books

According to the new AP/Ipsos poll, 27% of Americans didn't read one book last year. Wow.

I'm lucky I grew up in a house full of books with a mom would have three books "going" at once. She'd come home with a new tome and Dad would say, "We'll see you in a couple of days." She would get lost in all sorts of stories...and she still does. Thankfully, she passed that love of reading on to me.

Oh, and I should definitely also credit a grandmother who reads a lot, as well as two aunts who were librarians and have stacks of books in their houses.

Any recommendations for what I should add to my reading list?

This is what I'm reading now:

Plunderbund

Just a quick note...I am now contributing (hopefully once a week) to a great blog on Ohio politics: Plunderbund. Since I no longer live in Ohio, and pretty much get my Ohio political updates from this blog, I'll be writing mostly about national politics.

Check out my first post: The Permanent Republican Majority? Not so fast.

Who knew??

Lou Dobbs is a chain smoker!

And he was "outed" by Howard Stern...NYC is an odd place...

Burying the Lead

Over on The Huffington Post, there was an article about who is actually going to be writing the Septmber report on the "progress" in Iraq. Unbelievably, after all the "let's wait for General Petraeus' report" talk, the political hacks in the White House will be writing the report. I'm sure it will all be factual and about what's really happening on the ground...

Anyway, the bigger surprise to me was reading the original Los Angeles Times story. They totally buried the lead, instead going with:

Intent on demonstrating progress in Iraq, the top U.S. general there is expected by Bush administration officials to recommend removing American troops soon from several areas where commanders believe security has improved, possibly including Al Anbar province.

I wouldn't even have read past that paragraph! But, towards the end of the article, comes this news:

Administration and military officials acknowledge that the September report will not show any significant progress on the political benchmarks laid out by Congress. How to deal in the report with the lack of national reconciliation between Iraq's warring sects has created some tension within the White House.

Despite Bush's repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government.

And though Petraeus and Crocker will present their recommendations on Capitol Hill, legislation passed by Congress leaves it to the president to decide how to interpret the report's data.

The senior administration official said the process had created "uncomfortable positions" for the White House because of debates over what constitutes "satisfactory progress."

During internal White House discussion of a July interim report, some officials urged the administration to claim progress in policy areas such as legislation to divvy up Iraq's oil revenue, even though no final agreement had been reached. Others argued that such assertions would be disingenuous.

"There were some in the drafting of the report that said, 'Well, we can claim progress,' " the administration official said. "There were others who said: 'Wait a second. Sure we can claim progress, but it's not credible to . . . just neglect the fact that it's had no effect on the ground.' "

Read the whole article here.

Clueless

From today's Washington Post: Bush May Try to Cut Corporate Tax Rates

I don't know why this news surprises me...but I do like Nancy Pelosi's response...

Appearing before cameras at the Treasury Department alongside his economic team, the president vowed to veto spending bills that exceed his targets, and he accused Democrats of plotting the largest tax increase in history to fund an additional $205 billion in discretionary spending over five years.

"Put another way, it's about $1,300 in higher spending every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every year for the next five years," he said. "Now, somebody is going to have to pay for it. And that, of course, will be the hardworking American people. . . . I will use the veto to keep your taxes low and to keep federal spending under control."

Democrats quickly returned fire, noting that Bush inherited a surplus that turned into a deficit and that he never vetoed a spending bill during the six years that Republicans controlled Capitol Hill, even as the budget grew by 50 percent.

"After six years of reckless spending in Washington, President Bush is the last person who should brag about fiscal responsibility," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). She accused the president of misrepresenting Democratic spending plans, which she said come in lower than his and have received some Republican support. And she said Bush wants "to spend $2,800 each second . . . to keep our troops in the middle of a civil war in Iraq."

What's wrong with this picture?

I ran across this via the folks at Plunderbund...wow.


Here's the Intel apology.

Calling all Teen Movie Fans...

When I started this blog, a good friend said she couldn't wait for me to post about my new favorite teen movie. It's not really a secret that I love a good angst-ridden, silly teen movie. The problem is, I haven't seen ANY good ones come out lately. (I have high hopes for Superbad though).


In the meantime, I've discovered something to fill that void: Greek. (And, yes, it is on ABC Family.) From the first episode, I was actually interested in the characters, and it doesn't hurt that this cutey, Scott Foster, plays the good-at-heart bad boy. Fun summer viewing! I Tivo it, so I don't actually know when it's on, but I do know that the episodes are online here.