Enemy Combatant
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Filial Blunt
The House GOP decided at the last minute NOT to name the San Dimas Diva to replace DeLay, but instead installed Roy Blunt, DeLay's protégé.
Blunt is plenty ambitious -- but he's also just as dirty as DeLay. My money says Blunt gets sucked down the drain soon, along with the rest of the GOP Slush-Fund-O-Rama.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Izza Hammer Slammerbound?
The story on the AP is that the Texas grand jury that's been going after every DeLay crony in sight just might be indicting El Martillo mismo tomorrow.
(fingers crossed!)
Monday, September 26, 2005
The thing is: Brownie didn't really get rehired at FEMA.
He just made a fake ID.
They're powerless to stop him.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
The Revolution Will Be Televised -- From 2:31 A.M. To 2:33 A.M.
Of course, any MSM mention of the 150,000+ who marched against the Iraq War this Saturday in DC (and thousands elsewhere) has to share equal time with the 400 pro-war demonstrators who showed up on Sunday.
To be perfectly "fair and balanced," of course . . .
Monday, September 19, 2005
Ah, what a delicious predicament:
"This is the Katrina administration"SurveyUSA says Bush is stuck in a "can't win" dynamic: Much of the public thinks that the government hasn't done enough to respond to Katrina, but Bush loses support among his base if he tries to do too much more. "The more cash President Bush throws on the fire, as compensation for what some see as an inadequate initial response, the more it antagonizes his core supporters," the pollsters say.
It's almost Greek, isn't it? Like Prometheus? Or Tantalus?
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Life Would Be A Dingaderry
Yes, he looks uncomfortable, as he always does around black people. And yes, if looks could kill, that woman would be under arrest for presidenticide.
Now I remember what her look reminds me of:
"Shortchanged by the Lord, and dumb as a jackass. Look at him now! Yes, sir, all you've gotta be is white in America, to get whatever you want. Gobbledy-gook!"
Friday, September 16, 2005
Come The Revolution
Amy Goodman will chair the FCC . . .
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Of course, you heard about the Sacramento judge holding the Pledge of Allegiance with the words "under God" unconstitutional yesterday. (I've read the decision, and I agree -- his hands were tied by the 9th Circuit's last ruling on the issue.) Anyhow, there's fascinating stuff about the Pledge of Allegiance here:
When Bellamy wrote his Pledge [of Allegiance] in August, 1892, he was well aware of the Balch Pledge. In 1892 George T. Balch was the most influential person in the development of a patriotic flag ritual for the classroom. He was a New York City auditor and had developed a patriotic verbal flag salute and ritual, the first verbal flag salute used in American public schools. The students in his New York Public Schools gave his "American Patriotic Salute" as follows: students touched first their foreheads, then their hearts, reciting, "We give our Heads - and our Hearts -to God and our Country." Then with a right arm outstretched and palms down in the direction of the flag, they competed the salute"One Country! One Language! One Flag!"
Cue Up The Truck-Commercial Music
"Like a rock . . . !"
Monday, September 12, 2005
You Want The Chief's Seat? Then Show Us Your Griswold
Armando over at DailyKos has some outstanding questioning for Judge Roberts. Long story short: Roberts has to answer questions about Griswold, or he doesn't get on the Court:
The present case, then, concerns a relationship lying within the zone of privacy created by several fundamental constitutional guarantees. . . . Would we allow the police to search the sacred precincts of marital bedrooms for telltale signs of the use of contraceptives? The very idea is repulsive to the notions of privacy surrounding the marriage relationship.
We deal with a right of privacy older than the Bill of Rights - older than our political parties, older than our school system. Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse, hopefully enduring, and intimate to the degree of being sacred. It is an association that promotes a way of life, not causes; a harmony in living, not political faiths; a bilateral loyalty, not commercial or social projects. Yet it is an association for as noble a purpose as any involved in our prior decisions.
A question for Judge Roberts - do you disagree with this? Do you disagree that police searches of the marital bedroom for contraceptives are repulsive? Do you disagree that marriage is an association for as noble a purpose as any involved in prior SCOTUS decisions?
If Judge Roberts can not find himself in agreement with these passages, he is unfit for the Supreme Court.
Would not similar disagreement with Brown v. Board of Education, decided only 11 years earlier, not automatically disqualify him? Was not Judge Robert Bork voted down precisely because he did not agree with Griswold? Did not Arlen Specter vote AGAINST Bork precisely because of this? What justification would Arlen Specter have for voting NOW for Roberts if he held the same views as Bork? What justification would any Senator who voted against Bork have?
The great thing about Griswold, of course, is that it was written back in 1965, when the Supreme Court wrote with merciful brevity in English, instead of prodigious legalese. It makes the questioning much clearer to the average observer, and Armando has practically tossed the transcript over the transom to some enterprising Senator this week:
Senator: "Judge Roberts, do you agree with the reasoning of Griswold?"
Armando's already cut off all the detours, too:
Roberts: "It's settled law."
Senator: "I didn't ask you whether it was 'settled law,' Judge Roberts, I asked you if you agree with it?"
Sunday, September 11, 2005
No. 68, the Federalist Papers
"[T]he true test of a good government is its aptitude and tendency to produce a good administration." -- Alexander Hamilton
Saturday, September 10, 2005
From the Daily Show:
The Bush administration is working its way through its scandals alphabetically. So far, we're only to "K."
Thursday, September 08, 2005
From the "Boy, You Can Say That Again" Department:
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Well, if they're going to shitcan Mike Brown
from FEMA -- I hear Milo Minderbinder is available to replace him. . . .
(. . . and I'd bet my last dollar he's a Republican . . .)
Sunday, September 04, 2005
"This Just In - Hurricane Katrina's Latest Victim:
"The Emperor's Clothes.
Details, at 11:00."
Saturday, September 03, 2005
Man! Steve Gilliard Nails It
A note to our conservative friends:
WE TOLD YOU SO
You say this isn't about politics? Fuck you, this IS politics, real time, real life politics, where the insanity of all your ideas are exposed to the world for the fraud that they are. Tax cuts kill. Ask the relatives of the dead of the Gulf Coast.
To Dream The Impossible Dream
"The good news is — and it's hard for some to see it now — that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house — he's lost his entire house — there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch." (Laughter)." — President G.W. Bush
George (L) and Trent (R) practice apickin' and agrinnin' on Trent's new Gulf Coast porch.
William Rehnquist Has Died
so now, the Crawford Caligula gets to name his second lifetime appointee to "fix" that gol dang Constitution . . .
Friday, September 02, 2005
Hang On To That Flag, Ma'am
it may be all you're going to get, and you might want to swap it for some food and water later . . .
