here is wishing a quick recovery for senator johnson and for comfort for his family and friends.

now that it turns out that circumcision helps prevent the spread of std's i guess bush and cheney will be getting that loose skin hanging over their shirt collars removed.

Government seeks new ruling in Cheney case

The Bush administration asked an appeals court Wednesday to overrule a federal judge and allow the White House to keep secret any records of visitors to Vice President Dick Cheney's residence and office.

To make the visitor records public would be an "unprecedented intrusion into the daily operations of the vice presidency," the Justice Department argued in a 57-page brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia.

Good mornin Dems. gregg a little more savoring and back to work. :D

Esse, be sure and introduce yourself to Zack's Mom in DC. She is a really neat lady. Harold is a nice guy too.

Good morning Dem's....So the Rat Party has already started to smear Obama?...I started recieving hate and smear mail about Hillary over a year ago....The Rat Party has a lot of money to work with and like cornered rats, will stop at nothing to try to protect their positions....I don't think it is going to work this time out...The Rat Party has used these fear and smear tactics too often...The public is sick and tired of thier sleeze politics....What the public wants is good government...We will continue to have to work hard and smart, but in the end, truth will prevail and the Democratic Party will prevail...Keep the faith, it's one day at a time....It is ironic, yesterday was a rough day for me, it didn't get any better when I read about the smear tactics starting on Obama, but it ended well: I got a nice response back from Senator Obama to a letter I had written him. So, after everything, the day ended on a high note.

Mark my words, Saudi Arabia's promise to support Sunni insurgents if the US leaves will be used by war supporters to justify our staying and their desires to increase troop strength. Saudi Arabia is still very much an allie, although that alliegance may soon be downplayed to add credibility to my previous suggestion.

ally

Do I really care at this point? No, I don't. Iraqis are going to fight one another no matter what we do, even if Iran and Syria become involved in the process. All I really care about are the American and innocent lives that are lost as a result of someone's sick schemes in Iraq.

After watching this group push for war in Iraq for 21 years and the bloodshed of the past nearly 4 years inside Iraq, I am pretty much beyond feeling.

Have a wicked good day everyone.

Posted by salutetheDems on December 14, 2006 at 10:14 AM

I'm looking forward to meeting her.

I say 21 years because it was 1985 when Newsweek first published articles detailing the arsenal of Saddam Hussein, which was based on intelligence supposedly gotten from government officials here in the United States. Most of that arsenal, some things like massive underground bunker systems and I do mean massive, has never been found and I am certain does not exist.

Marine....I agree totaly...the pain I feel for the kids over in Iraq is numbing...I just don't have the words to express my feelings on this...I just want to see this insanity stopped as quickly as possible and all our troops come home...

If Mr. Bush attempts to send an additional 40,000 to 100,000 Troops to Iraq, I hope that the American public takes to the streets. Maybe mass peaceful protest will convince him of his folly. And it will be time for impeachment to be " back on the table "
I wonder where he thinks he is going to get these additioal troops from. By the time he finishes with "Bush's Folly" our military is going to be seriously depleated. If we had a real threat to this country, we might not be able to respond. Bish neess to be stopped, NOW!!!

Should read.."Bush needs to be stopped NOW"

marine, remember the giant cannon hussein was supposed to be having built?

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)was asked what he thought about the President. His reply: "Well, I really think he shatters the myth of white supremacy once and for all."

bluntererosky, ya gotta love rangel.

hey what ever happened to the 80 or so people who were kidnapped from that university in iraq? stuff like that just melts away as the msm focuses on important things like the fact that bush is attempting to think...

Letterheads that wants to brand Abu Graith
That one must fear the Truth of abuse, torture.
America Judges the Great Intimidators banning,
Searching those Liberal minds to blame as sinners.

‘Terminated for Poetry’ for my Vietnam Conflict therapy,
I wander America hurt on new Constitutional guarantees.
The venom of the cancer inside, must clear the mind
That the Bush legal injustice of Guantanamo hits home.

President Bush, please define your brand of Freedom and Democracy, and then the one you are trying to brand Iraq with? What is Constitutional Jeffersonian Freedom and Democracy? How many people have you silenced with your secret policies that now impeaches US to respond with a committee that you want to silence ‘At Will’?

With Corporate and Republican Right Wing Bush Freedom and Democracy, our political and corporate parents will treat us as Red Chinese socialists. They will dictate what we eat, smoke, drink, think, exercise 24/7 right into the home of filtering, their brand of proper sexual activity. Their Constitutional Freedom and Freedom will be of Corporate Royalty of country club living of a two class society of green-blood and poverties red-blood.

One has to dream outside, or die inside!

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Honica may the Season Greetings bless your hearts upon those words that make us all family.

Gregg...If Mr. Bush is trying to think...it's a little late for that now...his "thinking" is bad news...the caca will get deeper and deeper and deeper
His "thinking" has us in the mess we are in.

Bush wants $100 billion more for wars, report says

President Bush will soon seek about $100 billion in additional emergency funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a House report Wednesday.

Filed by Democratic staffers for two key panels in the House, the report's revelations mark a rapid escalation in the cost of the Iraq war at a time when public support is plummeting.

In a broad report criticizing Republicans' fiscal decisions, Democratic staffers on the House Appropriations Committee and House Budget Committee also noted that Congress has already appropriated about $379 billion for the war in Iraq.

"The administration is expected to submit an additional request early next year that will total roughly $100 billion. At least three-quarters of this request will support operations in Iraq," according to the report.

Legal Bills Drain Campaign Coffers

The latest campaign finance reports show that a number of House Appropriations Committee members currently under federal criminal investigation are using their campaign war chests to pay their legal bills. Outgoing House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and Reps. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) and John Doolittle (R-CA) are each spending sizeable chunks of their campaign cash -- raised in the latest election cycle -- to pay for their legal troubles.

All three men are on CREW’s 2006 list of the “most corrupt members of Congress.”

Army chief of staff wants to ease restrictions on using reserves

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker plans to tell the independent Commission on the National Guard and Reserves on Thursday that the Army needs to be able to mobilize the 345,000-member Army National Guard and 196,000-member Army Reserves more frequently and for longer periods than current restrictions allow, two senior Army officials said Wednesday.

Posted by gregg on December 14, 2006 at 10:01 AM

Oh thanks greg, now I'll probably have a nasty bruise on my a@@ from falling out of my chair laughing....

from salon:

...Bob Burns, political science head at South Dakota State University, believes Rounds would stay true to his party.

"It would be expected that Governor Rounds would appoint a Republican, if in fact the seat would be vacated, which would bring a tie (in the Senate) and (Vice President) Cheney would be the deciding vote."

Democrats won a 51-49 majority in the November election.

Burns pointed out, however, that Rounds could appoint no replacement unless there was a vacancy.

"Even if he were physically incapacitated, there's really no provision to vacate the position unless he resigns," Burns said.

Burns noted that the late-U.S. Sen. Karl Mundt, who was re-elected in 1966, suffered a stroke in 1969 and did not vacate his seat.

"He served out the remainder of his term with his staff basically serving as the senator," Burns said...

NEW YORK (CNN) -- What the hell happened? Where did we go wrong? How was Christianity co-opted by a political party? Why are Christians supporting laws that force others to live by their standards? The answers to these questions are integral to the survival of Christianity.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/13/bakker.brown.commentary/index.html

Editor's note: Jay Bakker, son of former Praise The Lord leaders Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Messner, is minister of Revolution Church and subject of a new documentary series, "One Punk Under God," on Sundance Channel. Marc Brown is a Revolution staff member.

Marine....Saw the list you posted yesterday....that was something...I know you must have enjoyed your self...I'm not familar with any of those weopons(sp?)...have had slight use of M1 rifle, 30 cal carbine and .45 acp service pistol....it took me about 30 years to become really good with the Colt .45's...thought about competing on the shooting circuit back then but no money in it then...just a few bucks and a trophy...these days the guys and girls get serious corporate sponsorship and some pretty good money if they are world class. I'm "over the hill" on all that now. Because of my deminised physical capabilities, I no longer miss it. The only consolation I have as far as my civilian shooting career is concerned is that it is better to be "a has been" than "a never was" I have some good memories of some real fine people I met in the shooting sports along the way I hope you have a real good day Marine. Thx for your years of servive. I'll catch you later...

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

A story of a boy being potty trained or a story of a mischievous boy?

“Mission accomplished!” declared the little boy. He got off the potty bowl, pulled up his underwear, then pants and tried to run out of the room.

The mother was waiting at the door. She had to remind the little boy; he had to wipe his pp and butt before pulling up his underwear then pants and not to forget to flush the toilet. His mother also told him to wash his hands and wipe his hands dry before leaving the bathroom.

The boy being strong willed decides he knew when he was finished and did not ask for help. He proceeded push and run out of the room. When he was out of his mothers reach, he bent over and pushes the last remaining poop and pee into his pants with a big smile on his face. He ran towards a group of relatives gathered around the Christmas tree to hide from his mother.

Grandma and Uncle Joe smelled something awful. Aunt Jane picked up the little boy and noticed the brown streak and dripping leak. “Aaahhh!” she cried, “He pooped and pee’d in his clothing! Martha, didn’t you take him to the bathroom to go potty?!”

Martha was mad at this point. She took her little boy, began to scold him and was ready to spank him when the neighbor Bob stepped into the situation.

“Don’t hit the boy! That will be negative enforcement and he will not learn. You should not use anger and punishment to teach a child! If you strike him, I will have to take him into protective custody!” declared Bob. With that statement, the mother looked stunted and Bob took the little boy into the bathroom to clean and redress him.

After dinner and desert as all the guests were getting ready to depart, the little boy ran to the radiator that heats the room. He pulled down his pant and began to pee on the radiator. The mother noticed Bob the Social Service Neighbor was half way out the door and did not notice. The Grandma and Aunt gave Bob a quick,”Goodbye!” and closed the door.

Standing next to the radiator, the little boy could smell the stench of his pee permeating the room. In his head his little mind told him, “Mission Accomplished!”

Blech....that was disgusting.

Also disgusting is the manner in which the selfservatives and the MSM are salivating all over their lapels over the possiblity that Senator Johnson could become incapacitated or worse. Where is Frist on all this? Where is the F-word channel? Shouldn't they be at his bedside praying for him like they did Mrs. Schiavo?

The depths that selfservatives will go to never ceases to amaze me.

Hi Everyone, long morning so far.

Salute the Dems, if you check in this one is for you:

Time for Obama to reach for brass ring

Blue,

The names and situation have been changed to protect the guilty!

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)was asked what he thought about the President. His reply: "Well, I really think he shatters the myth of white supremacy once and for all."

Posted by Christopher_blunt on December 14, 2006 at 10:57 AM

Oh yeah Charlie, the Idiot-in-Chief has definitely put that matter to rest.

And the segregationists want to claim that black/latino kids have lower achievement rates.

Ha! GW has shattered many a myth about intelligence and the priviledged life. As a matter of fact all the Bush kids have done that.

intriguing novelty

Guess that's my point.

He may be worthy...but let him EARN it.

I still say we shouldn't let glitter capture our fancy. Lets see some solid gold.

Good Morning, ALL!!

HERE'S a clip of all that gleeful dancing from F-Word "news" this morning, having to do with the prospects of Senator Johnson being "incapacitated".

Salute, if that is all you got out of the article your mind is closed.

And now we get an alert that a WTC bomber in prison and ill could set off a wave of terrorism. Wonderful. Meanwhile, Prince George twiddles his thumbs.

Gunmen kidnap dozens in Baghdad, police say
Gunmen in military uniforms kidnapped dozens of people Thursday from a major commercial area in Baghdad, the second mass abduction in the capital in a month, and nearly 30 people were killed or found dead elsewhere in Iraq.
A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol exploded in Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad, killing one soldier. A roadside bomb stuck a joint patrol of police and Interior commandos, killing two commandos and wounding one policeman in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.
Read the full story:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061214/iraq_kidnap_061214/20061214?hub=World

au·dac·i·ty [aw-das-i-tee]
1. boldness or daring, esp. with confident or arrogant disregard for personal safety, conventional thought, or other restrictions.
2. effrontery or insolence; shameless boldness: His questioner's audacity shocked the lecturer.
3. Usually, audacities. audacious acts or statements.

I'll tell you about "audactity." Audacity is someone 2 years out of the State Leg, with a REMAINING 4 year COMMITMENT to the People of Illinois, with almost ZERO foreign policy experience, with ZERO Executive experience, with almost ZERO Fededral Legislative experience, to CONSIDER that he's better than other people who are experienced, electable, and in fact, WON.

I'm afraid we're learning something about Obama's character that he should be ashamed of: greed for power and lack of ethics.

It's pure media spin to pretend that he's a real contender. In my opinion, this is all a hack job on the real contenders, like VP Gore, or Gov. Richardson. With this messed up warring world, now more than ever, EXPERIENCE is the MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR .

Saudis warn US not to leave Iraq
If US leaves Iraq we will arm Sunni militias, Saudi king warns Cheney.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1971581,00.html

Did the Saudis really say all of this and if they did will Bush use this as an excuse to continue his failed policy in the Iraq war?

Gregg, the big gun Saddam was having built for him was known as the "supergun". Back when we were friends a weapons developer from Canada sold Saddam on a theoretical weapon that he hoped would one day be powerful enough to reach space. What he did develop for Saddam was basically a beefed up version of a 155mm Howitzer with a range of around 1000km.

The theoretical version frightened Israel and so the United States intervened.

Acting on an anonymous tip, British Customs seized the final eight sections of the Super Gun in November 1990.

I think it's time for a poll that says, "If the Supreme Court had not stopped the vote count in 2000 in Florida, would our country be in this proponged war in Iraq, have this huge federal deficiet, and have this many global conflicts with a President Gore?

Where America got derailed is where we need to get back on track, Democrats. And now we know that the media was emboldened for the 2004, and did things like made the Swiftboaters prime time news, and never pointed out that it was lies. The audacity of the media is what we need to understand.

www.mediamatter.org

Bush Has Created a Comprehensive Catastrophe Across the Middle East. In every vital area, from Afghanistan to Egypt, his policies have made the situation worse than it was before.
By Timothy Garton Ash
The Guardian UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1971545,00.html

And now the MEDIA has primed the country for a REPUBLICAN appointment in SD. NEVERMIND that ONLY Sen. Tom Daschle is QUALIFIED AND CAPABLE of representing SD in the Senate.

Sure, the Gov could over-rule the voters, but it would likely be a court battle, and battle in the streets. Surely it would go to the courts if the Gov dare over-rule the voters in SD, and appoint a Republican. That would be audacity.

Only Sen. Daschle should be mentioned by the media. After all, he lost the Senate election by a hair. The notion that the Gov would have the AUDACITY to pick anyone else but the qualified Daschle is INSANE.

Prayers to Sen. Johnson.

Posted by Power_of_Equality on December 14, 2006 at 01:26 PM

May I point out that the American public have rejected experience the last two elections for "likability"? Nothing is certain.

Goodfoe, I've always thought about competative shooting but that's as far as I ever got with it. I fired expert every time, apart from one occasion during which I was required to qualify as hurricane force winds slowly made their way towards the range. There was one expert that day, he was lucky enough to have been firing right beside the little end berm which blocked a good deal of wind. I struggled from 500 yards that day.

Did the Saudis really say all of this and if they did will Bush use this as an excuse to continue his failed policy in the Iraq war?

Posted by DemocratKickingAss on December 14, 2006 at 01:28 PM

That's the plan, I'm certain of it.

At the same time the Iraqi PM says that Iraq's security forces are ready to take over operations from US forces. So long as the Iraqi PM is saying this, Bush, Liebman(that filthy weasle), McCain and other have no leg to stand on in calling for troop increases. The Iraqi PM says that Iraqis are ready and, since Iraq is not our country, we must accept his assessment.

Let's face it, the MEDIA has the AUDACITY to ONCE AGAIN attempt to change the balance of power to the corporate America hacks who vote against workers' rights and unions, and for it owners: General Electric (NBC), Westinghouse (CBS), and Disney (ABC)priorities.

Two of these are war contractors, and profit from wars, weapons, and nuke production. The other is about profit$, and opening corporate regulatory backdoors. They want corporate hacks (Republicans) in Congres who support media consolidation, and all the other corporate regulatory matters before Congress.

This how the media ensures "corporate welfare" for it's corporate family of commercial buying customers. That's the "network" TV.

To call the media "liberal" is the original lie, and biggest "Audacity" ever.

www.mediamatters.org
www.mediamatters.org
www.mediamatters.org

Salute, if that is all you got out of the article your mind is closed.

Posted by Kristen on December 14, 2006 at 01:03 PM

Kristen, There is much more:

First, one can only be an intriguing novelty once

Second, if you get the girl up on her tiptoes, you should kiss her

Moment of unguarded passion; great reason not to consider. Clear minds for best decision.

Third, he has, in Hillary Clinton, the optimal opponent

by default; the weakness of the opponent does nothing to get us a great candidate.

Fourth, the odds favor the Democratic nominee in 2008 because for 50 years it has been rare for a presidential nominee to extend his party's hold on the presidency beyond

Another reason by default. Why not chose a great candidate…not a feel good, intriguing novelty, candidate of passionate blindness, candidate of opportunity or shoo in candidate who may not be the best to govern and move our country ahead? We can do better.

Obama presidential candidacy could have a porcelain brittleness.

Kinda overusing that "audacity" line a bit, aren't ya?

It's pretty audacious to become obsessed with Obama at this point, considering the fact that he hasn't even announced, and even if he does, don't vote for him in the Primary if you think there is someone better.

Kristen, BTW I have never thought much of George Will anyway. But his "reasoning" here is silly.

Salute, you took much out of context. It seems too early to count anyone out, and yet Obama is the only one you are adamant about, and your 'being a smart gambler' reasoning just doesn't hold when we are talking about speculation.

I'm pretty worried that Bush doesn't seem to want to accept the ISG report, and follow all the recommendations. This was a very respected bi-partisan group. ("Im a uniter, not a divider... but I also the decider.") SoS Baker came to the rescue to hand Bush a way to change and save face. And considering Baker was the 2000 FL man to the Bush rescue, you'd think Bush would welcome his input?

Maybe the House and Senate need to pass a law that says to support all the ISG recommendations?

One thing for sure, democratic elections in the Middle East have empowered the extremists in Lebannon, Iran, and Iraq. It seems the "Democracy" does not ensure stability in the Middle East.

But if you're a doomsday fundamental Christian who believes the a WWIII will bring the "Second Coming of Christ," you've got to be hopeful, and not be all that concerned about all this instability in the region.

Good thing all those preachers pushing this Administration are trustworthy and truthful people, without any control issues. :-/

Kristen, Now you're not paying attention:

He may be worthy...but let him EARN it.

I still say we shouldn't let glitter capture our fancy. Lets see some solid gold.

Posted by salutetheDems on December 14, 2006 at 12:59 PM

MSNBC: "In the LIKELY Democratic Presidential Primary of Obama v. Clinton...."

It's not just about Obama. This is about the Dems being Swift-boated 2 years out. Helloooo! The media has a responsibility to report about what the DEMS are doing NOW, and how the REPUBS have us in a huge mess. GET IT?

It's ALL MISINFORMATION and MISDIRECTION.
FYI, Obama and Clinton don't have a chance. So why corronate them? Because it's a distraction, diversion, and division of the party. This is not about Obama and Clinton. This is about the full-scale Character assasination of the Democratic Party.

Kristen, please understand: I have nothing against Obama. It's the sheeple I have reservations about. An old lesson from working with horses: when a rambunctious horse gets his head up you lose control. When/if this Obama craz gets too much momentom the sheeple may not look at all the options.

We have nominated some fine people for the presidency in the past: Stevenson, Gene McCarthy, Dukakis, Gore, etc. All unelected. But fine people.

I agree with P-O-E, the MSM is trying to manipulate the Dems with their "loud" coverage of these early proceedings.

Posted by DPD on December 14, 2006 at 01:49 PM

No, I'm not over-using the word "audacity." I find it most ironic.

Look at the definition, and tell me if it's more audacious to hope, or more audacity to ignore legitimate Party candidates, and misrepresent yourself as qualifies and experienced?

As if it wasn't enough audacity to run against Rep. Rush.

Salute, THANK YOU. You restore my faith in humanity. ;)

What's this I hear about the Republican political hack who ran the anti-Sen. Max Cleland ads is affiliated with Obama?

Correct me if I mixed the hacks or stories up, please.

We have nominated some fine people for the presidency in the past: Stevenson, Gene McCarthy, Dukakis, Gore, etc. All unelected. But fine people.
Posted by salutetheDems on December 14, 2006 at 02:15 PM

Corection: GORE DID WIN. Bush was selected. And Kerry likely had the votes in more places than just Ohio.

Oh, no stories there... look over at the Ukraine, Americans.

Looking back on it, the media played a big role, didn't they?
See how they made non-stories deciding stories, and real issues as non-stories. Willy Horton, Bush's Missing In Alabama...

Since when are people NOT supposed to run against ANYONE just because YOU say so? Bobby Rush has a LOT of baggage, (still), yet the voters send him back time after time.

What is your point? When YOU become head of the DNC or DCCC you can appoint candidates, but until then it's up to the voters in the Primary to decide who they want.

Kristen, these two words kind'a resemble:

speculation:
an act or instance of speculating : as a : assumption of unusual business risk in hopes of obtaining commensurate gain b : a transaction involving such speculation

gamble:
a : to play a game for money or property b : to bet on an uncertain outcome
2 : to stake something on a contingency : take a chance

Posted by Power_of_Equality on December 14, 2006 at 02:27 PM

Was it the rustling of the trees you heard or do you have something material to back it up? If you aren't sure, why would you bring it up?

Salute, you haven't explained how he would 'earn' it in your mind. What makes Edward more worthy?

Good afternoon,

Who cares who we run for president in 2008? Any of our party would be better than the current dynamic duo in the White House. I say open up the field wide and let the best candidates surface as the caucuses and primaries progress....next year.

At this point we could be suggesting Jesus Christ and media would find something wrong with him. It's too early, people.

Hey SandyH, it's called "chomping at the bit". Another example of me letting the MSM dangle the carrot and going after it. My main thing is to put the quietese on it. :D

Opsss...I think that is "quietus".

Kristen, give me a while to think about how Obama, in my opinion, can supersize his qualifications. And it will take a while to make the long list of why Edwards is tha guy.

Think I'll designate the rest of today a Saturday and go find something fun to do. No one seems too energetic today...so. Later

Posted by SandyH on December 14, 2006 at 03:06 PM

The F-word network would label JC a Liberal-Commie and he would be investigated by the CIA for possible deportation. How dare he want to spend our money to feed and clothe the poor! How dare he pray for peace! How dare he encourage us to "turn the other cheek"!

Satan. Now there's a candidate the selfservatives could really get behind.

I really don't care who people like for '08, as long as he or she doesn't have any skeletons in the closet, and they are qualified.

Here's the point: The media is ONCE AGAIN manipulating public opinion with POLLS!

And ONCE AGAIN the MEDIA IS MANIPULATING THE NEWS with POLLS! Remember this one?

"Who would you rather have at you bar-b-que, Kerry or Bush?

How about "who would KNOW more about what the hell they were talking about at your bar-b-que?"

Why do we care what other people think, when we know that those people don't know everything, and likely LESS than many?

In fact, the people polled know very little because the media DOES NOT REPORT on the ISSUES, where the candidates stand on the issues, and most importantly WHAT THE CANDIDATE has done on the issues. ACCOMPLISHMENTS? Helloooo?

Marine...Just got back...are you still online?

I really don't care who people like for '08, as long as he or she doesn't have any skeletons in the closet, and they are qualified.

Here's the point: The media is ONCE AGAIN manipulating public opinion with POLLS!

And ONCE AGAIN the MEDIA IS MANIPULATING THE NEWS with POLLS!
Remember this one???
"Who would you rather have at your bar-b-que, Kerry or Bush?
How about "who would KNOW more about what the hell they were talking about at your bar-b-que?"

Why do we care what other people think, when we know that those people don't know everything, and likely LESS than many?

In fact, the people polled know very little because the media DOES NOT REPORT on the ISSUES, where the candidates stand on the issues, and most importantly WHAT THE CANDIDATE has DONE on the issues. ACCOMPLISHMENTS? Helloooo

The real story NOW is Speaker Pelosi, the first woman leader of the UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTITIVES, has a great plan to change things in the first 100 hours.

HOW ABOUT A FREAKIN POLL THAT ASKS IF THEY SUPPORT THE FIVE POINT PLAN TO CHANGE WASHINGTON IN THE 1ST 100 HOURS????

Sadly, most people would say "What plan?" because the CORPORATE OWNED AND CONTROLLED MEDIA wants more corporate hacks running the show in Washington.

Just look at the crap that MSNBC reports as news... everything EXCEPT what informed voters, workers, and consumers need to know. Notice how they are really heavy with the fear and terror stories?

The DNC needs to take the media on NOW.
DEMAND accuracy and fairness in reporting.

Gawd, if it weren't for donors to Prince George he wouldn't have a cabinet and the federal agencies would be run by...people who knew what they were doing! Scandal, Schmandal...

LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been questioned by police in connection with a political fundraising scandal, his spokesperson said.

In a highly unusual move, Blair was questioned at his Downing Street office on Thursday about allegations that donors or lenders to his ruling Labour Party had been offered honors such as knighthoods and peerages in exchange for their financial support.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/12/14/uk.blair/index.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As President Bush weighs new strategies for Iraq, the Army's top general warned Thursday that his force "will break" without thousands more active duty troops and greater use of the reserves.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/12/14/us.iraq.ap/index.html

Kristen

Don't take up arms for the Obama battle. You'll only get shouted down and whipped around by the Obama-haters using all their weak and unjustifiable reasons of why the man shouldn't be running for President of the United States.

Save your rationale for something else and leave the haters in their world.

J, if you are refering to my conversation with Kristen about Obama when you say: You'll only get shouted down and whipped around by the Obama-haters using all their weak and unjustifiable reasons of why the man shouldn't be running for President of the United States.

Save your rationale for something else and leave the haters in their world.
Posted by J on December 14, 2006 at 04:44 PM

then you are wrong! To begin with I have not said Obama should not run for the Presidency. My argument is that the people should not get carried away with him or any other unduly MSM promoted candidate. When you start calling people "haters" for this you are the one way off base.

Posted by J on December 14, 2006 at 04:44 PM

I felt the same way with the Kerry haters. It is one thing to voice your opinion, but yet another to constantly bash a potential dem candidate.

Hi {{Y'all}}

Good thing all those preachers pushing this Administration are trustworthy and truthful people, without any control issues. :-/

Posted by Power_of_Equality on December 14, 2006 at 02:03 PM

Funny you should mention that :-) A friend of mine drew my attention to this tidbit today.

Mon Dec 11, 2:51 PM ET

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. - The founding pastor of a second Colorado church has resigned over gay sex allegations, just weeks after the evangelical community was shaken by the scandal surrounding megachurch leader Ted Haggard.

Haggard, a gay-marriage opponent, admitted to unspecified "sexual immorality" when he resigned last month as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs. A male prostitute had said he had had sex with Haggard for three years.

On Sunday, Paul Barnes, founding pastor of the 2,100-member Grace Chapel in this Denver suburb, told his evangelical congregation in a videotaped message he had had sexual relations with other men and was stepping down.

I'll pray for forgiveness later for gloating just a little now. All the ones who tried to divide Americans with non-issues so they could line their own pockets are started to get paid off in kind.

At the rate they're falling, next year's holiday present could be the entire of BushCo's nuts roasting on an open fire. The camps they planned for us will be the ones they'll rot in.

Blue,

The blog arguements are reminding me of 3 years ago, Pre-Primary for 2004 election.

Remember how the Dean supporters were blasting Clark, and Edwards, etal, and vice versa?

I hope this time, bloggers are more constrained, because we are not as desperate as we were back then. At least now we have the House (and hopefully the Senate).

We should all be listening to other opinions, because that is how we will learn. I am trying to stay open, because in the end, we will all have to get behind the selected one and support them, whether we like them or not.

Posted by PamB on December 14, 2006 at 05:14 PM

I agree, Pam. The Primaries don't even START until Spring of 2008, and only a few people have even announced their intentions so far. Regardless of who decides to run, we still have to throw our support behind him or her once they become the nominee.

That being the case, though, an ear of corn in the Oval Office can't do any worse than this alcoholic crack-head we have now.

My last comment on the subject: I would not like to see a "nomination" before the first primary takes place. Sheeple like to find a warm cozzy place to get and remain. So as long as we keep our ears up, eyes open and mind thinking I'm sure we will do the right thing. And if it matters I like Obama. I hope he is the genuine thing.

Oh yeah, hit that Obama nerve with folks.

You know there's always a candidate that stands out and has that charisma that just draws and impresses people whether they be black, white, green, polka dot or whatever. Obama just hapens to be it this election season.

Just as sure as there is a God in Heaven and his Son Jesus Christ there would not be the hoopla with the media, discourses on whether he's qualifed or experienced enough, detailed accounts of what celebrities he knows, assessments of his character and so forth and so on if this man did not have black skin.

Oh now everyone is going to clamor and say, "Oh no, it has nothing to do with race". It doesn't? Sure it does! And anyone that says it doesn't is only fooling themselves and trying to ride on that "politically correct train". And the next comment coming forth will be, "You're trying to make this a race issue". Oh no I'm not! I am stating reality. I'm taking the discussion and debate of his nonexistant candidacy and laying open for full examination as why there is a problem with it, if he decides to run for the gold.

Time to really look in the mirror with OPEN eyes.

Want to know the top 10 reasons why Denver should get the DNC Convention? Go to ColoradoConfidential.com http://www.coloradoconfidential.org/showDiary.do;jsessionid=9CCC027C473AB24D0BFC1108B7FA8BFE?diaryId=1154

For a teaser, it has something to do with Rocky Mountain Oysters.

I sure am glad Hannity is out there getting the "truth" from all the soldiers in Iraq. I mean without the F-word channel in this war where would the soldiers be? Oh yeah...I forgot, probably at home with their families, since F-word was the big cheerleader getting them "stuck in Iraq" in the first place.

Because the blog is so quiet, I'll take this time to go off on a personal rant. Join me if you like...or not.

It thoroughly disgusts me that year after year since March 2003, Prince George and his stepford wife go about decorating the WH for Christmas with absolute abandon. HGTV covers the charade in detail, zooming in on the overflowing centerpieces and expensive garlands and trees. It is as if they are living in an entirely different world. Do they have a TV? Newspaper? Now, I know that Princess Laura thinks that the MSM is skewing everything, but she does know that American men and women are dying, doesn't she? Has she lost her soul? Her heart?

I guess living with a man who lost his soul to Darth Cheney years ago will make even the biggest heart turn black.

IMO, the WH should take a break from all the reverie and over-the-top Xmas decorating until every one of the troops come home and can celebrate with their own families. Or maybe donate their decoration budget to the families of those troops. Really, it is surreal watching them go about the decorating as if there weren't a care in the world. It must be nice that the leader of our country and his wife can forget about the death and dying so easily...

Ok, rant over....

WestSloper on December 14, 2006 at 05:51 PM,

In other words, Howard Dean is going to choose Denver because it fits in with the grassroots effort of We the People taking back the government, this decision flys in the face of Hillary Clinton's people, and it's just the site to win the west again.

Sounds rational, but we live in such an irrational world, ya know? I guess we'll have to wait that decision. But now, thanks to all that mathematics, I have a headache and must go lay down.

bbl, lol.

Hey good day,

The WH should eschew the commercial Christmas thing, most unbecoming in a discredited and failed leader trying to save the lives of the soldiers awating his command decision, and perform some condign penance.

Peacefully

BlueinIdaho on December 14, 2006 at 06:18 PM,

For you Blue

I agree with the rant, blue, why does the WH need to be dressed up way beyond compare. I also get this same feeling driving around looking at Christmas lights locally. Christmas has become a status game. Therefore, as I was reading your post the song in the above link just popped into my head. The lights and the glitze doesn't matter we're all beautiful in the eyes of the Lord.

That raid on the Swift meaters could have gone either way, the laws are enforced haphazardly and whimsically:

******
Golden State Fence Co. will pay $4.7 million. Mel Kay, 64, the company's founder, chairman and president, will forfeit $200,000, and Michael McLaughlin, 42, a manager in the company's Oceanside office, will pay $100,000.

The two men admitted hiring at least 10 illegal immigrants.
******

Hirsch said prosecutors plan to ask for six months behind bars for the two men at sentencing March 28. The maximum sentence is five years. Prison time is unusual in such cases.

Among Golden State Fence's projects in recent years was construction of part of a 14-mile border fence in San Diego in the late 1990s.

Last year, in one of the biggest cases of its kind, Wal-Mart agreed to pay $11 million to end a federal investigation into the use of illegal immigrants at stores in 21 states.

Companies are rarely hit with criminal charges for hiring illegal immigrants.

``You have show a kind of criminal conspiracy,'' said Steven Camarota, research director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, a group that advocates tighter immigration controls. ``The mere hiring of illegals is not enough.''

www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-6281055,00.html

2008 is near, but 2007 is upon us. Our congress had better do what we deserve. They work for us.

In my heart, I don't believe Sen. Obama wants anyone divided over his possible Presidential Candidacy, especially those in the Democratic Party, but here we sit, divided...the blacks saying it's his race, the whites defending it's inexperience. He's a half breed, isn't he? (aren't we all a mixture?)

Good golly, if it's this heated now, I can't wait to read you all come Jan. 2008. Which by the way, have any of you contacted your state chairs to host your congressional district delegation in your county? It gives you a "boost" if you work your local dems to go vote for you in the selection. Then if your candidate wins, you go to the National Convention. ;)

Better yet, have any of you taken out or are looking for locals to run in your 2007 elections? Are you going to help democrats get elected to non-partisan positions such as village council, township trustee, school board?

Tis the Season to be Jolly...I'm off to do a partial house cleaning, go to my parents and wrap some presents for them, and then enjoy bubbles, then have a hot chocolate with a big scoop of frozen cool whip. (Christmas Carols are playing through the house)

Enjoy the evening, everyone.

If college graduates in India work for $25 a day and if
college graduates in America work for $25 an hour,
what is the likelihood that American jobs will go to India?

Posted by davidual on December 14, 2006 at 06:40 PM

Thanks davidual.

david and Blue,

The Christmas buying frenzy is increasingly confusing to good American consumers. It is patriotic to buy and support the economy, but most of this stuff is from the great wallmart of China.

The advertising blitz is full-throttle however, and the confused shopper is jolted to dance the near-spastic and often amusing wallet twist.

Goodnite everyone.

Might be a little late in muting the "war" psychologial damage.

*******
Cabinet ministers have been told by the Foreign Office to drop the phrase 'war on terror' and other terms seen as liable to anger British Muslims and increase tensions more broadly in the Islamic world.

The shift marks a turning point in British political thinking about the strategy against extremism and underlines the growing gulf between the British and American approaches to the continuing problem of radical Islamic militancy. It comes amid increasingly evident disagreements between President George Bush and Tony Blair over policy in the Middle East.
******

A Foreign Office spokesman said the government wanted to 'avoid reinforcing and giving succour to the terrorists' narrative by using language that, taken out of context, could be counter-productive'. The same message has been sent to British diplomats and official spokespeople around the world.

Many senior British politicians and counter-terrorism specialists have always been uneasy with the term 'the war on terror', coined by the White House in the week following the 9/11 attacks, arguing that the term risked inflaming opinions worldwide. Other critics said that it was too 'military' and did not adequately describe the nature of the diverse efforts made to counter the new threat.

Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of MI5, recently stressed the threat from growing radicalisation among young British Muslims. Whitehall officials believe that militants use a sense of war and crisis and a 'clash of civilisations' to recruit supporters, and thus the use of terms such as 'war', 'war on terror' or 'battle' can be counter-productive.
******
A spokesman for the US State Department yesterday told The Observer that there was no question of dropping the term. 'It's the President's phrase, and that's good enough for us,' she said.

The White House website has a page devoted to explaining the 'war on terrorism', the terminology preferred by the Pentagon, and how it will be won. In April this year Bush compared the 'war on terror' to the Cold War in a keynote speech.

observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1968668,00.html#article_continue

Posted by WestSloper on December 14, 2006 at 05:51 PM

I especially like the link to the Republican Senator's "Top 10 Reasons" for the DEMS to hold OUR Convention in Denver. (In "comments").

Now, Let's figure out WHY the Denver Hotels are non-Union, and FORCE the Hotels to realize that Humans are NOT pieces of equipment. If the Hilton and Hyatt chains can "PROMISE" to "START" to "THINK" about treating their EMPLOYEES like HUMAN BEINGS just to make a few bucks, THEY ARE LYING!!

Once the Dems have gone home, the same crapola will prevail.

The Convention in Denver makes sense, but NUMBER ONE should be the exploitation of the WORKERS.

The presssing topic, however, is the badmitton game being waged by Saudi Arabia and Iran with our commander-in-chief as the birdie.

The Saudis are shaking at the prospect of losing control, and a regional conflict and world energy supply is depending on the next moves of the US army.

Now is not the time for more blunders.

Posted by pee-wee on December 14, 2006 at 06:42 PM

HUH?? $25.00 per HOUR?? Since Bushco ruined the middle class, 25 bucks a day in TIPS is the minimum most College grads can only hope for; the reat have to settle for entry level "Service" jobs at no more than $10.00 per hour for a few years.

The big Bushco plan is to have College Grads move "back home" and take care of their parents until they die, and hope the house is paid for when they do.

Posted by BlueinIdaho on December 14, 2006 at 06:18 PM

Blue, I caught the HGTV show with Dr. Phil's stepford wife and I couldn't agree more. I just kept thinking how gawdy it all was. It look like Walmart's Christmas department threw up all over the Red room.

Good evening, all.

There was a discussion this weekend about whether Senator Obama was being flamed because of his race. I stayed out of it. I've decided to join in.

I think its disgraceful the way CNN is targeting Obama. I've been busy the past week and haven't watched much 24/7. So I was shocked when I read this posted at TPM Cafe:

CNN Puts Obama In Split-Screen With Bin Laden and Hussein

By Eric Kleefeld

It turns out that Jeff Greenfield isn't the only one at CNN connecting Senator Barack Obama to Muslim extremists on the basis of his name. Jeanne Moos is doing it, too, and she has some handy split-screen effects: She's displayed Obama in split screens with not one, but two of America's leading Middle Eastern nemeses, Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Check out our screen grabs below. Moos' spot is obviously meant to be tongue-in-cheek; she lets us hear the Senator's humorous take on it: "I mean, it would be one thing if my name was 'John Hussein Smith.' When you're already starting with 'Barack Obama...'" On the other hand, split screens with Osama and Hussein? It makes you wonder if the ad man for GOP Senator Saxby Chambliss — who unseated Max Cleland with ads linking him to the two — is working for CNN now. Watch the segment here. ( via The Plank.)

//electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2006/dec/12/cnn_puts_obama_in_split_screen_with_bin_laden_and_hussein

I think Obama is being targeted for ridicule just like Gov. Dean was. And I think he's being targeted just like Max Cleveland was as a threat to national security as the article says. And you can bet he's being targeted for his racial heritage just like Harold Ford was in the last election.

These "cute" little jabs are attempts to undermine the credibility of a potential threat to the GOP by the corporate media that protects them. If they don't like his positions on issues or his record and want to go after that, it's OK with me.

But to compare someone two major foreign tyrants just because his name sounds Arabic to a bunch of ignoramuses is going way over the line. It is playing along with a racial smear campaign that started with the GOP. And the producers at CNN know it.

It remains to seen how far they are willing to play along with Rove on this dirty trick, but you can bet I'm going to be watching them closely and sending my complaints whenever they cross the line from now on.

Ridiculing and trying to discredit someone purely because of their cultural/racial background is an affront to all of us. Its racism no matter what the GOP is now calling it. I can understand why the Hispanics in this country took to the streets this spring in protest.

I don't know if Obama will be around at the end of the primaries, but you can be sure I'll be watching his back from now on.

Have you taken a good look at Rice lately? She completely bungled the Lebanese War post war diplomacy and has been non-existent in dealing with the Saudis. She may have a good background on paper, but in real life she leaves a lot to be desired.As for sweetening a ticket, her sour puss doesn't excite a lot of men. And a lot of women from all races and walks of life find her a tad too much stuck on herself. She's not going to get any sex appeal or girlfriends votes.What she brings to a national ticket is a reminder of a failed presidency...which she helped shape. I hope they do add her to ticket. Posted by SandyH on December 14, 2006 at 09:32 AM

And she's the moron who "let" 9/11 happen. She was national security adviser at the time, and it was her job to keep things like 9/11 from happening. She did everything she could to brush-off all the warnings she was given. Why anyone would still think highly of that idiot is beyond me.

Posted by PamB on December 14, 2006 at 09:22 AM Maybe that's why the Democrats are now in control of the house and Senate

And why did it take this long? :)

And black folk ain't havin' her, no way no how. She don't want us we definitely do not want her. GOP can keep her. Have agood day gregg Peace Posted by J on December 14, 2006 at 08:15 AM

In the false glow of their delusions, Republicans truly believed that Condoleezza Rice was the ultimate political asset – a Black woman who could by her presence wash them clean of racist stench, and then perform the same ablution the next day, and the next. Rice made it easy for the super-privileged to love themselves. Unlike coy Colin Powell, Rice did not bargain or seek her own space, but settled into the very fabric of Bushness. In so doing, however, Rice lost all power of personal agency. Having surrendered everything to the Bushes, her Blackness gradually lost its value as a cloak for her patrons’ racism. The affirmative action opinions of a loyal Black servant carry little weight, as Rice discovered in January of last year when Colin Powell’s pronouncements on the subject totally eclipsed her own. Her benefactors noticed that, too. That’s when the talk of high office, stopped.

Rice’s rich white admirers hugged and squeezed her too tightly – until there was nothing left but them all over her. It is common in African American circles to speak of “lost” Black souls, but in Rice’s case it is almost literally true that she doesn’t know where she stands and to whom she is speaking.

Rice has mused aloud that segregation would have faded away in time without the intervention of the Civil Rights Movement. This is no doubt what rich racists say over drinks in Texas – and what George Bush might have said to Rice back at the ranch in the days when they were both young and he still drank – but it is not what the “most powerful” Black woman in the world says in public if she has a brain in her head.

But Rice is brilliant, we were told. Millions of Black people fervently wished that were true, that Bush’s tenure would at least provide an icon or role model or two, as a consolation prize. Then the esteemed Dr. Rice revealed that she is as stupid as anyone in the White House – with the possible exception of George. "I don't think anybody could have predicted ... that they would try to use an airplane as a missile," said the National Security Advisor in the spring of 2002, when Congress finally began delving into how 9/11 could have happened.

Two years later, even Fox news viewers know that al-Qaida’s martyrdom-seekers talked and plotted about little else than using airplanes as weapons against the United States in the years and months before 9/11 – facts known at the time even to serious newspaper readers as well as the world’s intelligence services. Rice marinates in the putrid stew, and even the helping hands of the 9/11 Commissioners – who have repeatedly said they are not seeking to assign blame to anyone – cannot save the last threads of her reputation as an intellect. Politically, Rice is burnt.

The Black Commentator

I think Obama is being targeted for ridicule just like Gov. Dean was.

Posted by SandyH on December 14, 2006 at 07:50 PM

And Sandy I can't figure for the life of me what the Beltway and establishment DNC have against Gov. Dean so much. Just what has this man done? It was so ignorant when in large part because of Dean's 50 state strategy the DEMS swept the House and narrowed in on the Senate and all the DLC folk started clucking like chickens over him not spending all of the money or spending in wrong areas.

Maybe that's why the Democrats are now in control of the house and Senate Posted by PamB on December 14, 2006 at 09:22 AM

And maybe it's because Democrats no longer take the pro-Republican DLC Democrat campaign advice of allways being "respectfull" towards republicans and "never disagreeing" with any of the lies and smears they tell about you.

Posted by salutetheDems on December 14, 2006 at 12:59 PM I still say we shouldn't let glitter capture our fancy. Lets see some solid gold.

Have you made a case for your candidate yet? I haven't read back all the way. A case showing his or her strengths.

I'd like to compare him to Hillary. She's paid her dues and I think she deserves to be elected.

Plus I think she probably knows more about health care than any other elected official. Congress will legislate health care reform but the president needs to rally the people and legislators alike.

Hillary speaks very eloquently about health care and a lot of people in the country would give what she has to say a good hearing.

Hey folks get your collective butts over to the weblog Awards and vote for DailyKos. The nutjob scum bags over at Little Green Footballs are winning and voting closes on Friday. Recommend this diary if you want to make sure everyone else votes too, because to let that loser win would be tragic.

http://2006.weblogawards.org/2006/12/best_blog.php

Dailykos

Posted by Domingo on December 14, 2006 at 08:23 PM Hey folks get your collective butts over to the weblog Awards and vote for DailyKos.

Good advice. Done.

It was so ignorant when in large part because of Dean's 50 state strategy the DEMS swept the House and narrowed in on the Senate and all the DLC folk started clucking like chickens over him not spending all of the money or spending in wrong areas. Posted by J on December 14, 2006 at 08:17 PM

The "DLC folk" started clucking like chickens because he wouldn't give all the money to them so they could waste it in places that didn't need it. See, DLCs don't like it when Democrats "are so disrespectfull" towards Republicans as to campaign against them in Red areas.

Are they still crying about Affirmative Action?

The McCain Campaign: "Mr. Integrity" Wallows in Sleaze

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is an all-but-declared presidential contender not to be taken lightly. In a Los Angeles Times / Bloomberg poll released today, presumed Republican frontrunner McCain would thrash presumed Democratic frontrunner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) 50% to 36% among all voters, the lead mostly from self-described independents.

It is true that McCain was co-sponsor of the famous McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill; however, before McCain is crowned "King of Ethics" — let alone elected president of the United States — consider whom he just picked to be his presidential campaign manager: veteran GOP strategist Terry Nelson.

Arguably Nelson's "greatest" achievement was in this last election cycle, when as head of the Republican National Committee's independent expenditure unit, coordinating attack ads in senate races across the country, Nelson approved the notorious TV ad in Tennessee in which a stereotypical "dumb blonde" claims to have met Democratic senatorial candidate Harold Ford Jr. at a Playboy party and asks him to call her.

Given that African American men — men like Ford — were not that long ago lynched in the rural regions of Tennessee for having any sort of relations with white women, and given how such prejudices predictably persist in all too much of the state (and elsewhere), the ad was roundly condemned across the nation, and across much of the political spectrum, as being race-baiting at its most thinly veiled.

So thinly veiled that no one with even the slightest political insight wouldn't have seen right through it, including the man who approved it: Terry Nelson, the man whom McCain just picked — out of 300 million Americans — to run his presidential campaign.

If you couple that with the fact that Nelson evidently helped launder money through the RNC from corporate contributors to Texas state legislature candidates, in a scandal for which former Rep. Tom DeLay has been indicted, AND the fact that Nelson's consulting firm has hired one of the paid consultants who brought us the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" — whose smears against Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) McCain himself at the time (when he was not running for president) condemned as "dishonest and dishonorable" — you have to stop and ask yourself:

Remind me again why we're supposed to think of John McCain as the very embodiment of "integrity"?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/12/14/19631/445

Listening to Democracy Now this morning, Amy Goodman interviewed Bishop Erskine Williams, the pastor for two men wounded in the assault on Sean Bell. In the interview the pastor mentions that the white officer who fired over 31 bullets at the unarmed men had returned months before from Iraq.

Are we seeing the repercussions of the Iraq war on our streets?

Dailykos

Vote. Do you want to give DLC Hillary the "home-field advantage", or go for the political importance of the Mountain West?

Still waiting on Dean to decide 2008 convention location

Still no decision in a choice between Denver and New York City to hold the 2008 nomination convention.

The decision should be a no-brainer given the political importance of the Mountain West, but there are various constituencies (like the unions in the mostly non-union city of Denver, and Hillary, pushing for home-field advantage) that need to be appeased. The decision is supposed to be made before the end of the year.

Dailykos

Posted by Domingo on December 14, 2006 at 08:13 PM

First of all Condi has made it perfectly clear tht she doesn't WANT to identify with black folk which is perfectly fine with me and millions of others, but in doing so I wish she would keep her little silly statements to herself. Like the one she uttered when asked by the media how did she cope with growing up during the Civil Rights era in Alabama. Well low and behold this stupid woman proceeds to tell her inteviewer that she really didn't have time or know what was going on because she was too busy ice skating and taking piano lessons and to be perfectly frank she didn't participate in that "counterculture".

Now for me and many other blacks that was a put down too many. Counterculture? What the hell is that? Bottom line the b*tch was saying she was too busy in her world that her parents had surrounded her with to do black folk. But you know what? she was lying because living in Birmingham, Alabama that woman knew damn good and well what was going on out her front door.

As National Security Advisor, Condelezza let the country down with 9/11 and the War in Iraq. You have said it was her surrounding herself with Bushness, yeah that and having herself so far up GW's ass. The woman was blinded with the Bushes. Condi is talented in that she does know foreign policy, but we will never know just what her capabilities could have been because she placed herself in the position to be the Bush parrot.

I guess some would say she's a disappointment to African-Americans, but you can't be a disappointment to people that never expected anything from you in the beginning.

THE CORRUPTION OF ANDREW YOUNG

BAR asked several Atlanta activists their opinion of Young's road from movement streets to the corporate suites.

“It's always sad, when you see somebody people look to as a leader crossing the line like that,” observed Rev. Alton Pollard of Emory University's Candler School of Theology. “This is a man who walked and worked with Dr. King. We should be able to expect better.”

“Shameful,” spat the Rev. Austin Ford, a retired Atlanta minister who had been active in SNCC more than 45 years ago.

“When you look at it, it's really not all that surprising,” offered Dr. Keith Jennings. “This is the same Andrew Young that went straight from the King memorial celebration in Washington, DC to a Republican fundraiser across town where corporate fat cats showered Bush with campaign cash to do what he does for them. Those are the circles he moves in now, and that's who the brother is.”

Crazy Joe used to walk with Dr. King too. Being right about civil rights no longer makes one untouchable. Andrew better quit cheating poor folks before the warriors for justice knock him off his pedestal.

Plus I think she probably knows more about health care than any other elected official. Congress will legislate health care reform but the president needs to rally the people and legislators alike.

Hillary speaks very eloquently about health care and a lot of people in the country would give what she has to say a good hearing.

Posted by dorsano on December 14, 2006 at 08:19 PM

dors, I completly agree. Hillary was my hero in '93-94 when she was trying to get us some health care. Watching the Republican holding up the large book of treatment schedules (which every health plan has) and sarcastically proclaiming that any plan with so much literature must be too complicated to be good was just maddening. It was the first case of out and out blatant lying I had seen from a U.S. Senator that I knew was lying. I think that is what opened my eyes to the real political scene and how vicious the Republicans could be. Of course I have paid much closer attention since and have seen worser (as Kieth would say). At any rate I give Hillary a gold star for her knowledge of health insurance.

A Way Forward, a Look Back

By Robert Parry
December 13, 2006

The abrupt resignation of the Saudi ambassador to the United States and the postponement of George W. Bush’s new Iraq policy speech mark a troubling new chapter for a U.S. strategy for the Middle East that continues to spiral toward catastrophe.
****
To reestablish credibility with the Islamic world, Washington must demonstrate more than lip service on the issue of Israel-Palestinian peace and on Israeli peace talks with its Arab neighbors. Simultaneously, the United States must renounce any neo-imperialist designs on the region.

Both these goals could be advanced if, for instance, the United States began a phased withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq and used them to help Israel dismantle Israeli settlements on the Golan Heights and in the West Bank.

These settlements have become major impediments to peace negotiations with Syria and the Palestinians. But the Israeli government lacks the military strength and, in many cases, the political will to remove the settlers.

By peacefully assisting Israel in this difficult task, U.S. troops could both clear the way for Israel to negotiate meaningful peace agreements with its neighbors and make clear to the Arabs that the United States is sincere about respecting their concerns.

www.consortiumnews.com/2006/121306.html

A good current assesment and intelligent suggestions... if there were only something with an ear in office.

Condi is talented in that she does know foreign policy, but we will never know just what her capabilities could have been because she placed herself in the position to be the Bush parrot. Posted by J on December 14, 2006 at 08:53 PM

Her only "foreign policy capabilities" were a bunch of neo-con mombo-jumbo about the Soviet Union, who if she had her way, we'd still be wage-ing a cold war against. Other than that, she doesn't know foreign policy $#!t. She's every bit as much of a lying failure as Bush, Cheney, and Rummy are.

On Sunday, Paul Barnes, founding pastor of the 2,100-member Grace Chapel in this Denver suburb, told his evangelical congregation in a videotaped message he had had sexual relations with other men and was stepping down. Posted by HillWilliam on December 14, 2006 at 05:09 PM

LAPD probes departmental sex for favors

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said today that an internal investigation has been launched over allegations that the former deputy chief in charge of internal affairs gave preferential treatment — and secured promotions — for several female officers in exchange for sex.

Michael Berkow, who recently left the department to become police chief in Savannah, Ga. and was part of Bratton's inner circle, is accused of retaliating against Sgt. Ya-May Christle. She has complained in a lawsuit about Berkow's misconduct, alleging sexual harassment and that computer data from one of her investigations was destroyed.

LA Times

Posted by salutetheDems on December 14, 2006 at 08:58 PM At any rate I give Hillary a gold star for her knowledge of health insurance.

Plus I read the transcript of Bill's speach (and questions and answers) that he gave in Canada and he warned them about the high overhead we incur as a nation because we lack a national health insurance plan like Conyer's The United States National Health Insurance Act, H.R. 676.

Do you think she'd make passing this legislation as part of her agenda?

So much for DLC "electability". Any Democrat can beat the pants off McCain, except Hillary, who mcCain will trounce.

Voters favor McCain over Clinton in '08

WASHINGTON — Democrats have an overwhelmingly favorable view of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, but she would be soundly beaten if she ran for president against Republican Sen. John McCain now, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.

Underscoring the New York Democrat's potential vulnerability, the poll also found that Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican little known to most voters, would give Clinton a run for her money.

Given a choice between McCain and Clinton, half of those surveyed said they would vote for the Arizona Republican, compared with 36% for the former first lady.

LA Times

Some sincere and hard down prayer has been going up for Sen. Johnson and his family. He is responding to his wife's voice and reaching for her hand. Though his condition is still critical and the next 24 to 48 hours will tell the difference with his condition.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061215/pl_nm/usa_congress_senator_dc_21

Leahy threatens to subpoena Bush officials

The incoming Senate judiciary chair says he'll use the oversight tool if they refuse requests for papers and testimony.

LA Times

Her only "foreign policy capabilities" were a bunch of neo-con mombo-jumbo about the Soviet Union, who if she had her way, we'd still be wage-ing a cold war against. Other than that, she doesn't know foreign policy $#!t. She's every bit as much of a lying failure as Bush, Cheney, and Rummy are.

Posted by Domingo on December 14, 2006 at 09:07 PM

Did you know that Daddy Bush hired Condi to tutor his son in foreign policy during the first campaign. She was to tutor him with the current status of foriegn policy in he US. Yep sure did and Jr. of course was a bad stduent. Instead of reading the texts that she had laid out in her lesson plan, GW refused and she had to read and summarize them for him.

Is he lazy or can he read?

LGF implies we're cheating

Without providing evidence or a reason why they believe what their claim, They have posted the following:

The Kos Kidz aren’t the only lefty bloggers who’ve decided the way to win the 2006 Weblog Award is to cheat

Waaahh, Poor LGF

Dailykos

Posted by Domingo on December 14, 2006 at 09:20 PMVoters favor McCain over Clinton in '08

A quote from the same article ...

"I don't think anyone in the other party is going to vote for her," said Sean McCarthy, 32, a Democratic computer network manager in Los Angeles. "They have been practicing hating her for too long."

That's certainly the conventional wisdom. And I'm not sure it's true though there was a Marist poll done last week that included the negatives of all the candidates. I didn't post it because I haven't had time to check out the polling methodology.

But regardless, it's always seemed to me to be an odd way for a Democrat to think when choosing a candidate.

"Hmmm ... Which candidate will Republicans vote for? That one's electable. I'll pick him."

This is a snip from Rep Conyr's bill:
The bill would create a publicly financed, privately delivered health care system that uses the already existing Medicare program by expanding and improving it to all U.S. residents

This could be done. There would have to be a huge attitude adjustment in the field of health care services delivery. At present the doctors are so afraid of malpractice suits they run unnecessary tests which runs the costs out of sight. The For Profit people would have to be subdued with force. Insurance Companies, Pharmaceutical, HMO's and scores of other blood suckers would have to be dealt with. It would be a monumental task. Would Hillary try? I would love to think so.

Concerning South Dakota's Senator Johnson, who is in our prayers: why would the governor elect his replacement if he can't serve? Why not have another election? And, even Tom Delay had a replacement that was of his own party. Is South Dakota somehow different than other states?

Posted by salutetheDems on December 14, 2006 at 09:35 PM At present the doctors are so afraid of malpractice suits they run unnecessary tests which runs the costs out of sight.

That's the GOP spin but the GAO just recently performed a study that on both the cost of malpractice insurance (which represents less than 2% of our overall health care costs if I recall correctly)

and the "unnecessary tests" which they said were so small versus the cost of health care in general that they couldn't be measured.

Dennis K. is a cosponsor of that bill. He's running too.

Rally, this explains it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16211364/

supposed to be really good aurora viewing in northern united states tonite. give it a try if you want and let me know if you see something with a note here. or not.

From the Bloomberg Poll ....

Among Republicans, the two best-known and most popular potential candidates are Giuliani and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Both were viewed favorably by more than 80% of those polled.

Giuliani, renowned for his leadership role after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, surpassed the 80% favorable mark even among conservative Republicans polled — in spite of his liberal record on issues such as abortion, gay rights and gun control.

The bit on Giuliani is in direct contradiction to the Marist poll last week which concluded that Giuliani was "unfavorable" among conservative Republicans.

Anyone know anything about Marist College? It's near Poughkeepsie, NY.

dors, I'm sure you're right about the overall costs of tests. But I saw first hand what the Dr's (hospitol)did when my father was terminal ill. As long as the insurance would pay they would come in every morning and take him away where he would be given every test they had. When needed he was given blood. They catherized him and kept him alive...until the insurance had paid in full...they then "pulled the plug". He died within hours. The bill was astronaumical. They knew he could not live past the plug removal. None of the family wanted to see him go through all this. He knew he had no hope of surviving. The hospital tried to make us think there was hope.

GE wins $1bn Saudi gas turbine contract

By Francesco Guerrera in New York

General Electric has won its biggest gas turbine order in five years – worth nearly $1bn – with Saudi Arabia’s state power company, underlining the US group’s increasing focus on emerging economies.

The $950m contract to supply gas turbines to three power plants in the Middle Eastern kingdom, to be announced on Thursday, is part of GE’s drive to derive more of its earnings from outside the US by tapping into fast-growing developing countries.

-financial times story today

Media reform now? Military and civilian contractor owns major media outlets, and gets contracts from a monarchy that has a death-grip on the US energy supply and perhaps our armed forces: national security. Media watchdog on the government? Legislative attention, please.

Posted by salutetheDems on December 14, 2006 at 09:57 PM dors, I'm sure you're right about the overall costs of tests. But I saw first hand what the Dr's (hospitol)did when my father was terminal ill.

I'm sure there are abuses. I'm not saying that particular one was because there are legitimate reasons to run tests.

But think of this way, those abuses are drawfed by other inefficiencies on the supply side of the health care delivery system - of which one of the biggest is administrative overhead costs.

nice to see senator johnson doing well 24 hours after the msm had him buried. he may or may not need many months of rehab and so on but he will remain a senator. i'm back to savoring the take over of the house and senate and all the fun we gonna have come january.

and leiberman who remains slimey ain't going anywhere. the count is still 51/49 our favor. joe knows what's in his own interests.

hope that poor republican senator from wyoming is cured of his cancer or that at least it goes into long term remission for him.

dors, marist has a reputation of running a good, clean, scientific poll. along the lines of quinnipiac.

Posted by gregg on December 14, 2006 at 11:19 PM dors, marist has a reputation of running a good, clean, scientific poll. along the lines of quinnipiac.

Thanks, Greg.

saw some really good meteors last night and the damn aurora is supposed to be pretty active tonight but i just can't quite see it...you stand outside long enough and you begin to squeeze it out of the sky but i want to see it like they do in the canadian rockies or something. guess i'll have to get up there some time. i have seen some real good shows from around ithaca ny which i can't figure out.

Polls this early on before people have started to campaign are just a snap shot of where the electorate is now and not a prediction of where it will be at after candidates have made their cases but here it is anyways ...

I'm quoting tidbits not the major "conclustions"

WNBC/Marist Poll reports

67% of registered voters do not think Senator Clinton’s electability is a factor in their vote. However, 40% of Democrats have at least some concern. 18% of Democrats think electability is a major factor in deciding their vote, and 22% see it as a minor one.

A majority of voters also view Giuliani as ideologically acceptable including 64% of Republicans and 60% of independents who see him as politically about right. But when informed of his views on social issues such as abortion, gun control, and gay rights, most Republicans see this as a factor in deciding their vote.

NATURE OF THE SAMPLE: 1,229 AMERICANS This survey was conducted November 27th through December 3rd, 2006. 1,229 adults 18 years of age or older within the continental United States were interviewed by telephone... The results of the entire survey are statistically significant at +/-3%. There are 967 registered voters including 327 Democrats, 294 Republicans, and 314 independent voters.

hey when does delay's presidential campaign get rolling. i must send them a check. run tom run.

House Win Adds Insult to Injury for DeLay

By Sylvia Moreno and Chris Cillizza
Washington Post Staff Writer and washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Thursday, December 14, 2006; Page A04

AUSTIN, Dec. 13 -- Former congressman Ciro Rodriguez's victory in a House runoff election Tuesday in Texas not only allowed Democrats to pick up their 30th seat of the 2006 elections but served as a final rebuke to one of the architects of the Republican House majority: Tom DeLay.

The former congressman from Texas was the mastermind of a 2003 redrawing of congressional lines in the state that led to the removal of six House Democrats in the 2004 elections.
Ciro Rodriguez's win, and Tom DeLay's departure, may signal a new day for Democrats in Texas. (By Eric Gay -- Associated Press)
Two years later, DeLay's fortunes have suffered a near-total reversal, as the redistricting map that once seemed certain to cement his legacy and GOP majorities for years has instead led to the end of that career and may well be a building block for a reenergized Democratic Party in the state.

i really appreciate the way the cleaners have been mopping up every morning around here.

Posted by gregg on December 14, 2006 at 11:14 PM i'm back to savoring the take over of the house and senate and all the fun we gonna have come january.

The 2006 congressional elections were a watershed. "Compassionate Conservatism" died last November.

The whole notion of a "conservative" America died.

may it rest where ever it deserves to rest.

over at crooks and liars they have three music pieces that are really great. one is led zep doing 'whole lotta love' some time ago.

Posted by gregg on December 14, 2006 at 11:31 PM you stand outside long enough and you begin to squeeze it out of the sky but i want to see it like they do in the canadian rockies or something.

thanks for the links you sent, Greg. This weekend I'm gonna check out what's scheduled for the sky the week I'm north ice fishing (assuming we have ice).

Even if it's cloudy or nothing's playing I'm sure I'll see something because I can't ice fish without Schnapps.

Good Evening,

:)

I'm reading the pasts posts. I'll be right back.

hi fos.

Posted by FreedomOfSpeechForEdwardsObama2008 on December 14, 2006 at 11:48 PM I'm reading the pasts posts. I'll be right back.

I FOS, I was a bum I'm afraid and did read back. But I need to head off to bed soon.

me too fos. the stage is yours but maybe i will catch at the other end of your shift. be well young lady.

science will save us ( or we will by using it ) from our bad angels and lead us to a paradise on earth:

Scientists surprised about comet's ingredients
Thu Dec 14, 2006 7:38pm ET
By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An examination of the first material plucked from a comet is forcing scientists to rethink the nature of the frigid emissaries from the deepest reaches of our solar system, as well as the early solar system itself.

Reporting their findings on Thursday, scientists who examined tiny grains retrieved by NASA's Stardust spacecraft from comet Wild 2 (pronounced "vilt") in 2004 found the comet, as expected, contained material from outside the solar system.

But they were surprised to find minerals from near the sun as the solar system was first forming 4.6 billion years ago that somehow were expelled to the outer reaches, beyond Pluto, where comets are shaped.

"It was extremely exciting," said University of Washington astronomer Donald Brownlee, who led the research published in the journal Science.

catch a falling star and put it in your pocket...

Juan Cole Bush seems likely to try the "surge" tactic in Iraq of putting in substantially more troops, perhaps 20,000, in an attempt to take Baghdad and clear it of 'terrorists.

U.S. Military Commanders supporting the "surge strategy", counsel that if it doesn't work, it requires withdrawal soon afterwards because the "surge" is being resourced by extensions which are unsustainable.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast, which is the only explanation for adopting this stupid idea. The Iraqi masses are now politically mobilized, and they are well armed. There are 27 million Iraqis, and some 6 million of them in the Sunni Arab areas. 20,000 US troops is a drop in the bucket. Some are saying the US should try to destroy the (Shiite) Mahdi Army. The Mahdi Army is an urban social movement, and cannot be destroyed by conventional military forces. Bush is about to take us on another destructive wild goose chase.

Plus anyone who believes that once violence is contained for 3 or 6 months it won't resurface when the surge in U.S. troops is rotated out

is legally blind and shouldn't be allowed to drive.

This is what I meant to type :)

Hi FOS, I was a bum I'm afraid and did not read back. But I need to head off to bed soon.

To anyone who understood my post, you are gifted and be sure not to waste your talent.

Goodnight, bloggers.

Good Night fellas.

I'll be working this weekend so I'll talk to you later during normal business hours.

;p

Good morning FOS and anyone else out there

Slow morning, slow night.

Sen. Johnson is prayerfully coming along. He was responding to his wife's voice and reaching for her hand and that's good. As my Mama says, "I know a man". She's 80 and holds dear to her faith.

Good morning, everyone.

China, U.S. pledge to work on FX reform, savings

China will pursue exchange rate reform while the United States will aim to boost national savings in a drive to promote balanced growth, economic policy makers from the two countries agreed on Friday.

U.S., China agree to tackle global imbalances

China and the United States agreed on Friday that Beijing will pursue currency flexibility, while Washington will aim to increase national savings as part of joint efforts to reduce global economic imbalances.

As I was reading this article I was mildly surprised at just HOW organized the Civil Rights sit-ins were to integrate the lunch counters and other segregated public areas. Alot of planning and organizing went to these efforts.

http://www.blackagendareport.com/008/008_rf_sint_ins_were_planned.php

Pelosi Looks to Boost Oversight of Intelligence and Ethics

Under the rules package, Republicans would be guaranteed some votes on amendments. Members would be given extra time to read bills before a vote is scheduled, and votes could no longer be held open indefinitely while House leaders twist arms to win passage.

So Mayor Daley doesn't want to go to the Southside and discuss/debate the concerns and needs fo the black community during this campaign.

Come on Daley, not good, definitely not good. Sends out the wrong message, like you don't care!

Do you?

http://www.chicagodefender.com/page/local.cfm?ArticleID=7868

And Charlie Rangle you got it goin' on. We have been behind you from the very beginning and look where you are now! Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee - determining how the government's money will be spent.

I consider Rangel my US Rep. too because his districts includes my home area in NY and our family has known him for so long. He and his wife Alma have always been down to earth people. Charlie will tell you how he sees it like calling Cheney a son of a b*tch.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/13/AR2006121302200.html

STOP THE FUNDING!

The more George Bush procrastinates about the inevitable and necessary Troop Withdrawal, the more our women and men die at the hands of snipers, grenades, I.E.D.s, and the betrayal of Militia-Men embedded in the so-called Iraqi Military and the more serious I am about urging Congress to put and end to the Flow of FUNDS for this WAR!. Now, as always, the American people have been the ones in the forefront when it comes to dealing with the War on Terror and in Iraq. Not the Democratic Leadership. Let's just be real about that. We were the ones who suffered social ridicule for opposing the War. We were the ones called "Looney Leftists" "Terrorist Sympahisers" and "Anti-War Liberals" We were the ones mocked and told we just want to sing "Come by Here, My Lord" or as some people intentionally or ignorantly mispronounce the title of this old African Slave Song as "Kombi Ya, My Lord". In any event, we the People have always been in the for front for change, taking on the critics for our nations sake as well as on behalf of the Democratic Party. We were willing and have the backbone to take on these challenges and struggles because, in the end, we knew the rest of the nation would come around and figure out we were right about this as they did in this past election. It appears we may have to, yet once again, take the lead that our Democratic Leadership as a whole, is too afraid to take. My friends, it's time to seriously and assertively urge Congress to no longer authorize the funding for the Iraq War.

By the way. Before some of you start mounting your White Stallions draped in an American Flag and start touting off your Pseudo Patriotic Rant about how it's deplorable to make a mere suggestion of withholding the much needed resources from our Troops, let me remind you that the Troops aren't getting that money. All that cash is going to no-bid contracts for War Profiteers and to pay off the locals in an effort to find out who's shooting at who and why. Well, we already know. Sunni and Shia. It cost us millions of tax-payer dollars to figure that one out. It's also going to Military Propagandas Groups to supposedly, "Combat" the bad and false news that's coming out regarding the non-progress in Iraq. You all remember the newspapers scandal where American Soldiers were bound by pledge of duty (aka) FORCED by the Pentegon to falsify information and plant it in the local Iraqi Newspapers? We funded that. We are paying about 2.1 BILLION for that and similar (sic). All this, while our soldiers are asking for Silly String from home in an effort to use in the War as a life saving mechanism. (SILLY STRING) people! Also, let's not forget that Halliburton gives our Troops dirty water to drink and the food served not only sucks, but may be unhealthy.

So, please urge your member of Congress to stop the flow of Blood Money to this useless and unwarranted War in Iraq. Do it for the Troops. The Troops have already pledged an oath that renders them "Neutered". They have voluntered away their right to speak up on behalf of themselves. If ordered by the Military to say "Please, Sir.Keep me here Sir!" They must comply. They don't have their own voice until they are out of the Military and everyone knows that. Our troops are secretly praying that we the People stand up and fight for them. If you don't believe me ask yourself why so many of them run off to Canada and are hiding there ? Ask yourself why the ones who do stay to complete their Tour of Duty, run for office when they get out ............ as Democrats?

Swing votes

Carl Hamann is glad he requested a recount.
After a meeting of the Midland County Board of Canvassers and a hand recount of the ballots, Hamann received the two votes he needed to surpass Village President Ron Lowry in the Sanford Village Council election.
"I’m disappointed," Lowry said of the results, "but that’s how the system works."
Lowry appeared to beat Hamann by a ratio of 139 to 138, but two ballots not read by machines gave Hamann enough support to win a two year council seat.

Real estate fraud rises in US

Real estate fraud has now firmly emerged on the FBI's radar as the country's fastest-growing white collar crime - all, in essence, polite forms of bank robbery. Industry losses ran to at least $606 million last year, it says. And the Treasury Department's suspicious-activity reports are up 35 percent this year. The Internal Revenue Service's criminal case numbers in mortgage fraud have been doubling every two years through the first half of this decade.

If the downturn continues past 2007, experts say the implications for the economy could be dire."Real estate fraud is going to make the S&L crash look like two cars in the parking lot that bumped into each other at five miles an hour," predicts Ralph Roberts, the author of "Flipping Houses for Dummies," in Warren, Mich.

E-voting requires long-term strategy: IDC

To make strategic long-term decisions, the study recommends governments begin maintaining records on lifecycle costs and begin using those cost analysis to make better purchases.

Opponents of mail-in ballots get an ear

A handful of opponents will try to persuade the Colorado Springs City Council today to reconsider its plan to hold a mail-ballot vote in the municipal election in April.

Council members will vote formally on a plan they approved informally by a 5-4 margin two weeks ago: to use only mail ballots when Mayor Lionel Rivera and the four at-large council members — all of whom are expected to seek reelection — are on the April 3 ballot.

In backing the idea last month, council members cited the lower costs and greater voter turnout with mail ballots. City Clerk Kathryn Young said an all-mail vote will cost $209,000 less than
a traditional election that features polling places and absentee ballots.

Time for my soapbox

Don't worry nothing uncomfortable, folks

There is such todo about what is correct for this holiday season. I was speaking with Customer Service at my credit union yesterday and the gentleman ended the conversation with Happy Holidays to You. I replied without thinking, "And you have a Merry Christmas too". He stuttered and said, "You too". He truly sounded apprehensive that he may have done something wrong.

Well for me it's like this: I celebrate Christmas and Kwanzaa. My celebration of Christmas is due to my unabiding faith of trying to be a Christian and deep believe in the faith. To my way of thinking Christmas Eve is one of the holiest of nights other than Good Friday and Easter morning. I celebrate Kawanzaa because it reaffirms my heritage for myself and my forefathers of many generations ago. I can trace my lineage back to slaves working mid size farms in South Carolina. It also gives me a strength to go forward and onward.

Folks that are getting upset/offended seeing Christmas trees and whatever in public places are just plain grinches. Because their season may not be merry or joyful, it's a shame they try to take away someone else's.

The season is what you make it celebrate whatever your heritage or beliefs dictate. If you don't have any develop some and if you don't want to do that then just try feeling good because there is life to be had.

Gotta run

See Ya FOS, check you mail

Good morning to the morning crew

checking out

See Ya FOS, check you mail

Good morning to the morning crew

checking out

Posted by J on December 15, 2006 at 06:46 AM

Okay.

;p

J @ 6:15

as a political junkie, i can tell you that you need not look any further than the governor's race to solve the "mystery" here. it has absolutely nothing to do with race. sorry to disappoint. it's got EVERYTHING to do with power. the reporter knows it, too. he has some, daley has more.

The word on the street is that with Daley holding a huge lead in the polls, he won't concede to any debates, choosing to ignore his challengers.

Well, I'm from Texas, folks. And where I come from, a man ain't afraid of a gunfight. You bring yours, I bring mine, and then we'll see who is left standing.

with a comfortable lead, incumbancy and history on your side, ignoring the challengers is your perrogative. and only a fool shows up at a gunfight with nothing to win...

gotta give the Defender reporter props for baiting the mayor. the governor's challenger tried to prod for more debates. didn't get 'em, didn't win.

sometimes a banana is just a banana.

I will be celebtaing the Holidays by supporting employees who want to be home for the Holidays with their loved ones. I am so very Pro-Family, that I am willing to work double shifts on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so that others can be at home with their Families. Since I'm in Wisconsin and family is in California, I figured I would celebrate by making the Holidays special for others. It has entierly NOTHING to do with the fact that I will be getting lot's of OVERTIME as well as HOLIDAY PAY on top of that for working all those shifts. (CHA-CHING) It has nothing to do with that at all.Really, I'm doing it for the families. The Families, I tell ya!

;p

you can vote every 24 hours for raw story...the "anti-liberal bias blog" Newsbusters is narrowing their lead, though.

thank you for supporting Larissa's excellent news site...for those of you who remember her when she posted here...

S.E.C. Eases Regulations on Business

Responding to criticism that regulators had overreacted to years of major corporate scandals, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday issued a flurry of deregulatory orders and proposals intended to lower costs to public companies. It said the moves would not reduce investor protection.

bring them home now! video clip of children chanting ".... iraq!"

another clip of David Duke...guest of the Wolfman...

GOOD NEWS: SAN ANTONIO (AP) - In a startling turnaround, breast cancer rates in the United States dropped dramatically in 2003, and experts said they believe it is because many women stopped taking hormone pills.

The 7.2 percent decline came a year after a big federal study linked menopause hormones to a higher risk of breast cancer, heart disease and other problems. Within months, millions of women stopped taking estrogen and progestin pills.

{{DK}} and {{Essie}}

that's a very kind and loving gesture, FOS...woven with a little enlightened self-interest, which doesn't change the fact that you're doing a good thing...cha ching

hope you have fun while you're at work, meeting lots of interesting people

Nice links, Essie...i've been out of town on business, so it's nice to read your news...

later y'all...please vote for raw story, if you can ...and is today friday? how did that happen?

enjoy!

Hoo-ray! It is Friday! Company for the weekend, always makes my heart sing. Now it's time to dance out of my jammies and get my slacker to the office.

Enjoy the day, everyone.

that's a very kind and loving gesture, FOS...woven with a little enlightened self-interest, which doesn't change the fact that you're doing a good thing...cha ching

Fade, Maybe I should run for some local office ey? (sike)

Have a GREAT Friday, everyone. I get to go to a Chistmas/Holiday Party for my job so, that outta be fun.

;p

Peace Out!

good morning all.

Good Morning Iraq. I suppose that we should start calling ourselves that so that George Bush will take interest in us too. Is it just me or has anyone else gotten the impression that George Bush would rather be the president of Iraq than the United States. He certainly spends more time dealing with Iraq's problems than he does with ours.

Good Morning Dem's...just finished reading all of last night's posts....really good...esp. appreciate fos at 6:29...I hope all of you have a great day!!

Happy Holidays. The phrase has been a part of the American language much longer than we have been conscious and concerned with the relgions and celebrations of others. Most used the phrase because it was easier than wishing a person Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year all in one breath.

The Christmas Warriors have seen fit to attack this American tradition simply because they would like their twisted reality to have substance.

The word on the street is that with Daley holding a huge lead in the polls, he won't concede to any debates, choosing to ignore his challengers.

Posted by fade2bluz on December 15, 2006 at 07:29 AM

Sorry to disappoint you too. It's still, " I don't care or give damn" - translated, "definitely don't need or want to know what you folks care about". Can't say that he doesn't care what ANY of his constituents want or have to say. Just say he's selective in whose voice he wants to hear.

And that's a race issue.

(CHA-CHING) It has nothing to do with that at all.

Posted by FreedomOfSpeechForEdwardsObama2008 on December 15, 2006 at 07:30 AM

Rack it up girl. It spends real good in January at all those sales :)

Can you spare a dime? That's what Americans are asking George Bush these days. Since March of 2003 Americans have come to expect that their money will be spent on Iraq rather than here at home. Why?

Money we don't even have, money we must borrow from China and other nations who then have more control over our own economic futures than we do, is being spent on George's pet project in Iraq. Isn't this money ours? If so, why do we just sit back and watch as it is wasted without demanding results?

If this were a business venture, the plug would have been pulled a long time ago. But instead, there is no oversight, no board of directors to say enough is enough. Well enough is enough. This member of the board is pulling the plug.

This Congress will do the people's work. This Congress will not run off and do as they please with out money. Those who do shall find themselves, in a few short years, asking "Can you spare a dime?".

our money

And that's a race issue.

Posted by J on December 15, 2006 at 08:33 AM

they're all race issues to you, J

you may be right.

Marine....Good to see you "up and about" this am....on your post at 8:37, all I can say is "Amen"....on an other subject...The fact that you were able to train yourself to consistantly fire expert at 500 yds. places you in a very elite group of riflemen, probably the top 1/2 of 1% of all rifleman on the face of the planet! My sincere congratulations on this and a tip of the old Stetson to you this morning. And once again, thx for your years of dedicated service to our country

J

i'm not sure how you are involved in Florida politics, but i'd love to hear about it. you have a lot of "soapbox" moments that would be well-received by your local Democrats...you should run for office, or support some local candidates. your passion would be a powerful fuel

i've said this before when the gay rights rants became perplexing to me...you appear to be directing some passive-agressive stuff toward me, and i'm not sure why...i'm on your side. i'm not black but i have two black kids...and i'm really concerned that you're assuming you know me

you do not

Good to see you, Goodfoe. I hope that you are doing well today.
It was interesting firing from 500 yards but I always wanted to back away to the range of sniper and try my luck from there. Though I grew up in a family full of hunters I never fired a rifle until I was a Marine. I loved it, probably because I enjoy the skill involved. Strangely I think that I enjoy woodworking for the same reason. Skills of the body and mind.

Good morning Fade, I thought you were gone...If you were to move back to Texas we could throw rocks at the Rats together...That would be fun!!!

here is something we can be proud of. it results from the hard work we all did in this election cycle. time to get off worrying about whether or not the republicans will take back the senate before we even have it for a day and get back to our issues and promoting them:

Democrats to raise wages for poor workers
Thu Dec 14, 2006 8:50am ET
By Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The incoming Democratic-led U.S. Congress intends to give a hand to dishwashers, fast-food cooks and America's other poorest-paid workers by raising the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade.

With the gap between rich and poor widening, Democrats promised such a pay hike as a part of their campaign that saw them win control of both chambers of Congress in the November 7 elections from President George W. Bush's Republicans.

With the new 110th Congress set to convene on January 4, Democrats vow a vote soon on a bill to raise the minimum wage over two years to $7.25 per hour from $5.15 per hour. And they seem positioned to make the popular measure law.

"This is a moral issue, as well as an issue of economic fairness and justice," said Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who will be the House of Representatives' Democratic majority leader.

i love that hoyer calls it a moral issue, that is so right on!

goodfoe,

i had a few minutes to spare...one parting thought

that would be wonderful to "throw rocks and the Rats together"

Houston could be blue with a little work...i know it

Too good to wait for a new thread. I'll post it there as well.

First steps toward ethics reform in Congress

Even as Democrats vowed this week to tackle ethics reform head on when they take up the gavels on Capitol Hill in January, they are already wary of land mines that could shatter their bid to rebuild Congress's image.
Citing the mandate from voters in the midterm elections to clean up a culture of corruption, incoming House speaker Nancy Pelosi promised a sweeping reform agenda Thursday, including a first-ever "outside enforcement mechanism" for congressional ethics.

"The ethics process over the last few years has lost the confidence of the American people," she said in a briefing with reporters, where she predicted the "most honest and open Congress in history

Top of the morning to all of you bleeding heart liberals.

Posted by Marine on December 15, 2006 at 08:37 AM

Marine,

As you pointed out, it isn't our money. It's China's money. Or the Saudis, etc. The debt is what we own.

I see that the generals now saying that they need two more brigades by 2008 or we will be breaking the back of the military and Iraq will be lost. So maybe that's how we end this war. We cut regular appropriations to the military.

If they generals don't have the troops, it doesn't matter how much money Bush throws at the Iraq War. The trick is getting a firm grip on where Bush is spending all the money from those special Iraqi allocations.

I bet a lot is being diverted from Iraq and being spent on Cheney's other pet projects...like the Star Wars defense system (you know the one that is so basically flawed that it never tests well?). When we find out the truth about Bush's Iraqi Freedom fuzzy math and leak it to the media, the American public is going to be even more pissed than they are now.

None of this is good news for the military or our troops, but Bush is the Commander-in-Chief and has decided they must be sacrificed for the Next Coming. If it turns out that the Lord is really a Buddhist, we're all in big trouble. That debt to China will be just a drip in the bucket of our woes.

Marine...I really appreciate your acomplishment....so many factors...range..windage, elevation, shooting up or downhill, deflection, time of day, temp, hot barrel or cold barrel, I'm really impressed! I was n/g with the rifle,,far sighted, peep sight on M1 was to close to my right eye. Couldn't "stay on paper" at even 50 yards. That why I appreciate your shooting skills so much. My expertise was with hand guns as a civilian. I was pretty good with the .45 acp 1911 type pistols but nothing comparabe to your 500 yd shooting.

I loved firing the 9mm, it was a good change from rifle qual. I fired expert with it every time as well.
I wasn't lucky enough to find someone who wanted to put me on a shooting team though. I knew a few guys who spent their time in the Corps doing nothing but though I could never seem to get hooked up in the same way. I was always competing on promotion and Marine of the Month/Quarter, or what have you, boards instead. A friend of mine, the guy I handed my study material too and supervised for years actually won Marine of the Year a few years back. I was moving on to the Officer's Corps and he had decided to remain an Enlisted Marine. Sometimes I think that I should have just stayed in the Enlisted Corps, because my career ended a couple years after I began training to become an Officer. I'd have completed that training had it not been for the incompetance of a retiring Marine Officer who refused me medical treatment and sent me off to OCS instead. I was not prepared for OCS because I could put all of my attention into it, instead I was nursing an illness too.

could not

I lost confidence in the leadership of the Corps itself while going through OCS that year. I'd attempted to explain my problem to the Commander of OCS that year, but he was a little too high strung at the time to hear me. As far as he knew I was perfectly healthy when I arrived, and so there was no need to consider allowing me to return at a later date.

Here's the problem. As Marines we are taught to follow certain guidelines and regulations, and because we do we assume that all other Marines do as well. The Commander of OCS simply couldn't fathom another Marine Officer, a peer of his, violating the very basic requirement that all Marines receive medical treatment when necessary.

Just to give you an idea of what was going on, I'd requested counselling 5 months before I was shipped off to OCS. My marriage of 5 years was falling apart because I'd learned that my wife was cheating. I'd attempted to deal with this on my own for nearly a year before requesting assistance and, though I literally broke down in his office, this Officer decided that I could deal with the problem myself. Medical assistance, even counselling, was taken off the table because he assumed that it would take too much time away from my studies.

One imcompetent, or perhaps merely distracted Officer, because he was preparing to retire, destroyed my confidence in a centuries old organization. Every Marine knows that mission accomplishment is our top priority, but troop welfare is number two and this man didn't even consider it.

At any rate, his mission was to prepare me for OCS, and he failed to complete that mission when he failed to provide the medical treatment that I had requested. A Marine must be prepared both mentally and physically for the rigors of OCS. This was that officers only mission.

Can you tell that it pisses me off to this day?

Most people haven't a clue what it requires to become a Marine, must less what it requires for a Marine to prove himself Officer material after 8 years enlisted service. I proved that to myself and the officers who selected me. I have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.

I am proud of my accomplishments.

I've also been responsible for training a good many Marines. Without men like me and those who came before me and will come after me, we would not have a Marine Corps to defend us. We are even swore to defend those who disgrace and dishonor us the way that some of these gutless trolls do every time they disrespect the men and women who actually took up arms to protect this country.

Morning all,

If any of you have heard of any good news happening in Iraq, either through the media, or through personal relationships with military or media or political people who have been there, would you kindly speak up now or forever hold your piece? Even my own State Rep Christopher Shays, after visiting Iraq 14 times and coming home with glowing reports (after being holed up in the Green zone), on his 15th trip, when his House seat was in jeopardy, came back to say it was all a disaster over there, and we should look at a new course!

family friends coming back from there, say the only way they dare venture out, is with hundreds of cigarettes and candy to give away, in an effort to win some security.

I have been waiting with baited breath to hear of even one good thing that has happened from this illegal invasion and occupation!

GreggyTc... I have called you out before and all you did was duck and hide...I assume that you are a rich Rat just having some fun...Why don't you spend a little of your ill gotten money and come down here to Texas and try saying some of this stuff to my face...Hell, I'm an 71 year old cripple. Show us all what a tough guy you really are: come on down here to Texas and take your best shot, then it will be my turn

The troll just has a problem with military men and women in general. He didn't have the guts to do what they have done.

goodfoe,

The sour grapes are just too much for some of these Republican losers to swallow! So they come and spew their anger, hatred, frustration out here!

These trolls faces are SO red with embarassment that their party was so full of corruption, sexual perversion, Rubber stamping bad ideas, that they don't know which way to turn!

They are getting a piece of what Dems got back in '94, and then again with a stolen election in 2000!

CLICK HERE for New Open Thread

New Friday Open thread up!!

Marine... I know you asked me to ignor the troll but enough is enough. I was an ocs canidate when I came out of undergrad school for Marine Corps Aviation. Got busted on on the physical, night blindness, ete, ete,.....Its a long story but I'm not going into it here, esp. while we have this coward troll hiding behind his computer, throwing his little darts out while he masterbates. I notice he never mentions his own service to this country..Come on down to Texas troll and show me what you've got.