DeLay asked Kenneth Lay for money to help Texas redistricting - that pig is going DOWN

I may want to get married, but at least I'm not a crook:

In May 2001, Enron's top lobbyists in Washington advised the company chairman that then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was pressing for a $100,000 contribution to his political action committee, in addition to the $250,000 the company had already pledged to the Republican Party that year.

DeLay requested that the new donation come from 'a combination of corporate and personal money from Enron's executives,' with the understanding that it would be partly spent on 'the redistricting effort in Texas,' said the e-mail to Kenneth L. Lay from lobbyists Rick Shapiro and Linda Robertson.

The e-mail, which surfaced in a subsequent federal probe of Houston-based Enron, is one of at least a dozen documents obtained by The Washington Post that show DeLay and his associates directed money from corporations and Washington lobbyists to Republican campaign coffers in Texas in 2001 and 2002 as part of a plan to redraw the state's congressional districts.

This is a massive story in Monday's Wash Post - 4 pages on the Web. Tom DeLay is toast. I say the Dems get the House back. Read More......

Ron Reagan, Jr. to address Democratic convention

I SO called it! I was at a party last night, said we should get Ron, Jr. to speak at the convention, and everyone said I was nuts. He he he... Major embarrassment for the Bushies. What are they going to do, try to attack Reagan's kid now? But they can't do that because Ron is just a child of a politician, like Mary Cheney, and the Bushies have already told us that Mary is off-limits.

"The Republican Party now is not the Republican Party of my father, not that it would be of great concern to me, one way or the other," he said. "I'm not a Republican and I never have been.

"My father wouldn't expect me to be a Republican just to emulate him. He raised his kids to be independent thinkers. ... I'm not terribly popular, apparently, with a lot of Republicans. I imagine some of them are pretty angry about what I've said about the Bush administration."

Should he be asked, Reagan said he would not attend the planned tribute to his father at the Republican convention, which is Aug. 30-Sept. 2 in New York.

"I don't think, in good conscience, I could take the chance that somebody could read that as an endorsement of this administration," he said. "I'll support any viable candidate who can defeat Bush."

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Coming back to an airport near you, the same old "private sector" security screeners

This is outrageous. Bush and the Republicans on Capitol Hill put a provision in the law creating the Transportation Security Administration that will soon permit airports to kick out the current federal security folks and go back to those private sector morons we had screening you and your baggage pre-9.11.

I remember traveling at Dulles Airport in the DC area just after 9.11. The same airport that was used to fly the plane into the Pentagon. The security guys could NOT speak English, not a lick. I asked one if they had food courts in the area post-security, and he couldn't understand a word I said. The second guy was at the metal detectors and he couldn't put a sentence together when I asked him whether to take my laptop out of the case or not - I'm talking, the man couldn't understand a word I said, and couldn't say a word in English to save his life. We spent two minutes going back and forth, me trying to sign language taking my laptop out of its case and him looking all dumb and reiterating some phrase that no one in line could understand. How in the hell are these guys going to catch the next Mohammad Atta?

I'm quite serious about this. My mom and grandparents immigrated to this country, I've lived abroad, I speak five languages, I've dated foreigners who didn't speak English (Italians, mmmm), so I get the immigrant thing. But don't put guys in charge of security of our airports, guys in charge of sussing out who is and isn't carrying a bomb to kill me and 300 other people (or 3000 people), who can't even speak or understand a word of English (not to mention, some of the born-here Americans at security were a trip as well). That doesn't instill a lot of confidence, not to mention, what the hell is he going to do if someone is a security threat - motion to others with his hands? But that's what we'll be getting back to, thanks to GW Bush and the Republicans in Congress who wanted to give the security gravy train back to their wealthy corporate donors.

NYT Editorial:

Bashing federal bureaucracies is a favorite sport among Republicans on Capitol Hill, but their fun should not come at the expense of national security. That is what is likely to happen if airport security checkpoints are once again turned over to profit-driven private contractors. Under a little-noticed provision of the post-9/11 aviation security law that would undoubtedly shock most travelers, airports may soon have that option.

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Anti-Bush protesters re-enact Abu Ghraib, get arrested

Now, someone tell me how it's disorderly conduct to re-enact the Abu Ghraib prisoner scandal as a form of political protest? It's ok for us to do this to people to torture info out of them, but it's not okay to re-enact the scene as a form of political protest. Uh huh...

The newspaper was so kind as to publish their home addresses - Michael Moore ought to mail them free movie passes.

Six young men from Lancaster City wearing only thong underwear were arrested along Old Philadelphia Pike when they attempted to recreate the infamous picture of Iraqi prisoners forced into a human pyramid at Abu Ghraib prison.

The protesters stripped down to their underwear and formed their improv in front of a greenhouse, near where the president was to speak, East Lampeter Township police said.

Cited for disorderly conduct at 2:27 p.m. were: Jonathan Kohler, 21, of 735 N. Marshall St; Tristan Egolf, 32, of 337 W. Lemon St.; Russell Willard, 18, of 1511 September Drive; Adam Willard, 21, of 15 S. Lime St.; Benjamin Keely, 22, of 337 W. Lemon St.; and David O?Bryant, 21, of 208 Ruby St.

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Some Key Conservatives Pissed At Bush

Join the club. Read More......

Lynne, Dick Cheney Differ on Gay Marriage - or do they?

I'm not convinced AP got this story right. Lynne is saying leave it to the states, but Bush is trying to say that he's actually giving states the decision by sending the constitutional amendment to them to ratify. So it's really not clear what the hell Mrs. Cheney is talking about. Read More......

Kerry Vows To Restore 'Truth' to Presidency

The funny, and nasty (but in a good way), part of all this is that isn't this the same platform, more or less, GW Bush ran on - restoring credibility to the White House. What a slap at Bush, this is GOOD. Read More......

U.S. Mulling How to Delay Nov. Vote in Case of Attack

Not sure if it's smart or not to be announcing this publicly. Maybe it helps because Osama will know that the show will go on, with or without him. Or perhaps it's bad, since Osama now knows we're, yet again, freaking out over his threats. Read More......

Lynn Cheney SQUIRMS when asked about Gay-Bashing Amendment - what's a PFLAG mom to do?

My friend Joe reports in:

Just watched Lynn Cheney squirm on Wolf Blitzer when she was asked about the Constitutional Amendment. She gave some garbled answer about agreeing with what Dick said in the 2000 VP debate about allowing people to enter into these relationships..but that the Mass. Court had somehow screwed it up.

Wolf pushed her on the need for an amendment, noting that Feinstein and Snowe both just said the amendment is a bad idea...even though they both oppose marriage. Wolf asked Cheney why an amendment was needed... and she squirmed... literally and figuratively.... wouldn't answer, although she claimed she did. She said the debate on the amendment was a good starting point. But, she made it clear she would not discuss it any further and told Wolf to move on. Tried very hard to keep smiling...

Wolf let her off too easy...her answer didnt make any sense, but it was great to see just how uncomfortable Lynn was.

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So why can't we fire Rumsfeld over Abu Ghraib?

Remember all that talk about we could NEVER fire Rumsfeld over Abu Ghraib because we're at war, and when you're at war you just can't afford to change the top leadership of the administration. Then George Tenet decides to resign, or is forced out, and now the Bushies say they may just want to wait until after the election to nominate a new CIA chief. Will any enterprising journalist quote this back at them and ask for an explanation? Read More......

Larry Flynt says GW Bush paid for an abortion

Larry Flynt talking of his new book "Citizen Flynt":

You can't stay with a story this long and not believe in it. In 2000, I got a call from a lawyer in Houston. He told me that his client, 'Susan,' could prove that George W. Bush arranged for his girlfriend to have an abortion back in the early 1970s. Her boyfriend at the time, 'Clyde,' was pals with Bush and set up the procedure. We checked up and found that indeed 'Clyde' was responsible for keeping Bush out of trouble. Bush had knocked up a girl named 'Rayette.' We talked to the doctor that performed the abortion. We felt we really had a blockbuster story, but about two months before we were going to break the story, 'Susan' disappeared. We finally found her. She was living in a half-million-dollar home in Corpus Christi, Texas. Before that she was living in a small apartment working for $13,000 a year as a cocktail waitress.

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Bush making the world a more dangerous place

The Bush-Cheney war of convenience is now having negative repercussions in Saudi Arabia. OK, I have a laundry list of issues with the Saudi government but this one is interesting. Anyone could have seen this one coming (anyone except the usual suspects) but it looks like the war could have the impact of speeding up the decline of Saudi rule. Where did all of the realism go that the Rep's like to think that they have? The region is looking at years of new problems and fighting from this war.

"An increasing number of Saudis who crossed the border into Iraq to fight the U.S.-led military occupation are returning home to plot attacks against the Saudi government and Western targets in the desert kingdom, according to Western counterterrorism officials and Saudis with ties to militant groups.

Some Western officials express fear that the homecoming will grow if Iraq stabilizes. They also say they worry that the trend could become an echo of the 1990s, when thousands of Saudis traveled to Afghanistan to enlist in training camps sponsored by al Qaeda and other Islamic groups." Read More......

Go Fuck Yourself

Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR), who claims he's pro-gay, is supporting the Gay-Bashing Amendment:

"'I intend to be your champion on many issues in the future, if you want me,' Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) said in remarks directed at gay and lesbian voters."

Feel free to contact Senator Smith and tell him how much you want him... to go Cheney himself: http://gsmith.senate.gov/webform.htm I have no patience for jerks like this. Just imagine what the Jewish lobby would do to this guy if he had stabbed them in back like this on their issues. He'd make that mistake only once. It's high time we started taking no prisoners. You're with us or you're against us. Read More......

Now THAT'S a Democrat!

AP:

John Edwards, the newly named Democratic vice presidential candidate, suggested that President Bush's administration dragged its feet in prosecuting alleged 'corporate crooks' like the former Enron chief executive Kenneth Lay.

Can anybody find a picture online of Kenny-boy's keynote address at the 92 Republican Convention that nominated George Bush, Sr.? Read More......

Four U.S. Marines Killed in Iraq

Four Marines are killed at the same time the homos are trying to get married. Coincidence? You decide. Read More......

Liar

NYT:

'What they do in the privacy of their house, consenting adults should be able to do,' Mr. Bush said. 'This is America. It's a free society. But it doesn't mean we have to redefine traditional marriage.'

Really? So President Bush no longer supports sodomy laws, which he very much supported when he was the governor of Texas. Laws which the main backers of the constitutional amendment want to put back in place. Some honest journalist needs to finally ask him this question straight up - for or against sodomy laws, was Lawrence v. Texas correctly decided or not?

Not to mention, who is "they?" Oh that's right, the unmentionable ones. Read More......