More polar bears drowning due to global warming

Not waving but drowning.

(Okay, for those who didn't get the reference...) Read More......

Senate Republicans kill proposed $2bn for 9/11 first responders

The Republicans only really care about September 11 on November 7.

What the Daily News story doesn't tell you is that it was the Bush White House, along with Giuliani's city hall, that lied to the 9/11 first responders about how the air was totally safe around Ground Zero so they shouldn't worry about it. In fact, the White House knew perfectly well that the air was not safe and they edited several reports and press releases to hide that fact from the first responders.

So, basically, George Bush lied to the thousands of Americans who chipped in at Ground Zero, and now their health is at risk. And after all that, the Republicans don't want to help them.

Think I'm exaggering, do your own research - it's been widely reported what the White House did. It's sickening.

Though in all fairness to the White House, if the police and firemen who are sick in NY had only been Iraqi, I'm sure they'd have gotten $300 billion. Read More......

Friday Orchid Blogging

I've had this guy for a few years now. It's a Brassia "Eternal Wind." It's terribly easy to grow - it likes its water, and a lot of sunlight. Otherwise, doesn't take much. Though, like all orchids, you need to repot it every few years, and NOT in potting soil. Repotting is the only real trauma involved, otherwise this one is easy. At least for me. This time I got two very large spikes of flowers, each one about 18 inches long, with probably ten flowers per spike. It's really a stunning plant, and it's lightly fragrant, which you don't really notice with just one spike - but now that I have two (a first for me), you notice it a bit more.

Enjoy. Read More......

Cliff's Corner

The Week That Was 9/15/06

Another week. More preposterousness to report.

Or should I say another day, another Republican heading to the pokey? Ho-hum. This time it is Bob Ney’s turn, for colluding with Jack Abramoff to basically be a venal reprobate. Yet, nobody can deny Ney’s political talent. It’s tough to so closely attend to the interests of the residents of Zanesville, Ohio while using laundered money from a Native American tribe in Texas to play golf in Scotland. Now that’s impressive.

Not to mention that you’ve got to give the Republican Party credit for being the only entity able to produce a guy who’s so white he gets sunburned in the United Kingdom.

But Ney was not the only lying GOP malcontent on display this week. I know, shocking. Anne Coulter’s goiter also un-holstered itself to claim that Disney/ABC’s docu-Pravda was based on the 9/11 report, which is about as accurate as claiming she was born blonde. Or that Walt Disney didn’t molest wallabies on a tour of the Australian Outback.

You mean you never heard about that? Well don’t worry, I chronicle this entire sordid episode of American history in my new “docudrama,” Walt Disney: The Path to Bestiality.

And luckily for us, because I was beginning to miss the guy, Bob Novak stuck his head up out of the earth once again this past week (three words Bob: hunting, you and Cheney) to come up with story #4 about how he used his column to sell out a United States operative and enable America’s enemies. His lies even have lies resting comfortably inside of them at this point. He lies so much he has to hide them in his Depends. He lies…well you get the point.

So I’m waiting for the inevitable promotion to Washington Post editor.

But as is often the case, the biggest liar among a cast of thousands, from Coulter to ABC to Novak, is once again our humble president. This time he made a major speech blabbering on about how important it is that we get bin Laden, right before our Pakistani “allies” made a deal with the remnants of the Taliban to essentially provide indoor plumbing and conditioned air for his grotto.

And then the Bush we know and love came out to play. He told the slack-jawed, corporate-humping, super-dork Republican-operative-in-journalist’s-clothing Fred Barnes that capturing bin Laden is “not a top priority use of American resources.” Amazing. Bush knows what resources means?

Seriously, so the guy who is Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin and Skeletor all wrapped into one tidy 6’4 package, who has been as difficult to find as WMDs in Iraq or a Dashiki in George Allen’s closet is now not worthy of using our assets? Is Bush trying to privatize anti-terrorism and war in addition to Social Security? (well actually, yes, go buy Robert Greenwald’s fantastic new film Iraq For Sale to get all the disgusting details).

So let me get this straight. Mr. Zap, who liked setting records for executions in Texas, doesn’t think killing the guy who mass-murdered Americans and is most definitely planning to kill many more merits our “resources,” but thinks Paris Hilton needs those very resources in the form of another tax cut?

If that is not a campaign commercial for every Democrat running for Congress right now, I really don’t know what is.

You can catch my new articles on the future of Republican Senate Leadership in this month’s Washington Monthly Magazine, here and here.

My take on Keith Olbermann’s fantastic commentary the other night on Bush’s politicization of 9/11 at The Huffington Post here.

And if you feel like watching some TV on Sunday, I'll be on MSBNC debating a Republican to named later on Bush, terrorism and opposition within his own party. I'll be on twice, from 12:00-12:15 pm and 12:45-1:00 pm Eastern Time.

Read More......

Republican Senator George "Macaca" Allen to attend event with shunned GOP extremist

Perhaps George Allen can explain to Virginia voters why he feels the need to attend an event with someone who has admitted to the Anthrax attacks, someone who has called Muslim's "ragheads," and who has welcomed terrorists killing US Supreme Court judges.

If James Webb attended a conference with Michael Moore or Whoopi Goldberg he'd be asked to comment on anything and everything they've ever said - hell, the media (and the Bush campaign) did just this to John Kerry repeatedly. Fine, fair is fair. It's time for the media to ask George Allen to comment on Ann Coulter and why he's attending an event with her. Or does the media only hold Democrats accountable?

What is George Allen doing lending credence to this kind of bigoted, hate-filled gathering?

Sept. 22 - 24. VOTERS-VALUES SUMMIT _ Family Research Council's legislative action arm holds ``Washington Briefing: Values Voter Summit 2006,'' with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Ann Coulter, Newt Gingrich, Bill Bennett, others.

Highlights:

7:15 a.m. Breakfast for pastors, with Dr. Jerry Falwell.

9 a.m. Morning session, with Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA), Dr. James Dobson, Tony Perkins and Alan Sears.

10:40 a.m. Morning session on traditional marriage and other issues. Marilyn Musgrave; Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS); Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR), others.

2:35 p.m. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

3 p.m. Senator George Allen (R-VA)

7:30 p.m. Evening session, with Ann Coulter, others.

Location: Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert St. NW

Macaca, Part II? Read More......

Does George Bush agree with Pope Ratzinger that the Prophet Muhammad was "evil and inhuman"?

Funny, cuz Ratzinger always seemed like such a nice guy.

Some journalist should ask George Bush if he agrees with his buddy Ratzinger. Then watch Bush squirm because America's religious right, the folks who Rosie criticized, hate Islam, hate Muslims, and freak out whenever Bush says anything even faintly positive about their religion.

So watch him squirm, ask the question. Read More......

Bush's IRS takes down leading religious right anti-abortion group right before the election. Coincidence? I don't think so.

If it's election time, it's time for Bush and the Republicans to once again Sista Souljah the religious right.

I'm no friend of Operation Rescue, but it's hardly a coincidence that with all the tax status investigations going on in this administration, the one that finally bears fruit is the one slapping down a religious right anti-abortion group - the group that led the battle to "save" Terri Schiavo, no less. Holy swing voter, Batman!

Man, I'm enjoying watching the Republicans eat their own in an effort to show the voters who can be more anti-Republican. But honestly, if the voters want to vote for someone who "isn't Republican," they might as well vote for the real thing. Read More......

They're building a moat around Baghdad as a last-ditch effort to keep it safe

Good God. They're building trenches around Baghdad to try to stop the out of control violence. Good God. They're building the functional equivalent of a moat around the city and Bush is still telling us things are going great. He just said on TV that "the Baghdad security plan is making progress." Yeah, so much progress you're now building a moat. What a disaster. Read More......

Bush says Powell is "unacceptable" for comparing the United States to Al Qaeda

Well, so much for that. Bush just told the nation that Colin Powell thinks America acts just like Al Qaeda.

Does Colin Powell really think that?

It's great to see Bush starting to Swift Boat his fellow Republicans by calling them un-American traitors who don't understand the battle we face.

Powell doesn't listen to the words of the enemy, Bush says.

Oh God, now Bush is criticizing the Geneva Conventions, "it's very vague, what does that mean?" Bush wants to "clarify" the Geneva Conventions. Excuse me? We want this idiot to be clarifying the Geneva Conventions, something that has existed for 60 years or so without Bush's help, thank you very much.

How dare he tell the world that he is going to reinterpret the Geneva Conventions, and not expect other countries to do the same thing when they get a hold of our soldiers and have them in custody? As Colin Powell and John McCain have said, George Bush is putting our soldiers' lives at risk, and he doesn't care or even understand the reason for these protections.

Oh, and now Bush is endorsing the McCain anti-torture law, the one that Bush issued a signing statement saying he wouldn't obey. And now he's wrapping himself in the law he won't obey?

I'm going to lunch, lest I throw something at my TV. For the love of God, will some Republican with a conscience please step forward and stop this madman? Read More......

The p.r. offensive continues -- Bush doing press conf. at 11:15 am

Bush is doing a press conference at 11:15 a.m. this morning. His full blown campaign to scare Americans hasn't had the results he's wanted yet according to the latest AP/Ipsos poll:

By a double-digit margin, likely voters say they still are more inclined to put Democrats in control of Congress after a dozen years of Republican rule.

The marginal shifts in public sentiment toward Republicans follow a campaign-season span in which Bush, members of his Cabinet and rank-and-file lawmakers pounded Democrats on national security. In the days surrounding the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Republicans have vilified war critics as defeatists who embolden terrorists, and likened them to Nazi appeasers.

The President and his people have been in full campaign mode these past few weeks throwing everything they could at the Democrats. The culmination was his blatantly political speech on September 11th. While Bush's approval rating increased a bit, GOP candidates are still in trouble:

The AP-Ipsos poll asked Americans if the election for the House were held today, would they vote for the Democratic or Republican candidate in their district.

Democrats had a 14-point edge among likely voters, 53 percent to 39 percent. That's narrower than last month but still a wide gap. Since August, the GOP has attracted more married men, young people and those who live in the Northeast.

Republicans also have drawn even on the question of who would best protect the country, with 43 percent of likely voters siding with Democrats and 41 percent choosing Republicans, numbers within the poll's margin of error.

While Bush has been playing politics with terrorism, seven U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq during the past 48 hours. Read More......

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Thanks, JOHN Read More......

Friday Morning Open Thread

What's Bush doing to today to endanger the lives of our troops? When Bush's torture policies put American soldiers "at risk," to quote Colin Powell, he's not supporting the troops.

The media is confused because they thought Bush and Rove were going to use the torture debate against the Democrats. But, this battle is between Republicans with military credentials (Warner, McCain, Graham and Powell) and Republicans who use the military and terrorism for partisan politics (Rove, Bush, Cheney). Of course, Hill Republicans usually cave to Bush and they still could.

Okay, what else? Read More......

Sectarian killings increasing in areas where troops are unavailable

So let me understand this "new" yet often repeated situation. The US has had a security campaign going on since 7 August to clamp down on violence in Baghdad so the violence just moves to another part of town or nearby area, out of reach of the program. That sounds to me like we do not have enough troops on the ground. Haven't we seen this kind of movement around the country since almost the beginning? Send troops into location X and violence moves to location Y. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Yes, Bush is consistent alright. Hoo ha, hooray for being consistent. Too bad for everyone that the guy is consistently wrong. As Newt suggested, had enough? Read More......

A question for Disney/ABC: Are Christo-fascists better than Islamo-fascists?

Just curious if one breed of religious extremism is considered worse than the other because one guy is white and the other is brown. Or are fascists only fascists when they're non-Americans?

• Was the Inquisition really kinder and gentler than Al Qaeda terrorism?
• Was Hitler the Christian really a better guy than Osama the Muslim?
  
• When Christian conservatives quoted the Bible to justify racism (and let's not even talk about lynchings in the south, since I'm sure the lynchers were probably all Muslims), were those Christians any better than Osama citing the Koran to justify violence?
• In the grand scheme of things, should blacks consider themselves lucky they only had to endure 300 years of slavery rather than the unthinkable burden of having to turn in your lip gloss at the airport?
• Were Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson any better than the 9/11 hijackers when they said that America brought September 11 on itself?
• When religious right leaders call the prophet Mohammad a pedophile, and Islam a religion of hate, how does that make them more tolerant than radical Islamists who hate all Christians?
• When Christian right followers murder American abortion providers is that less wrong than when Islamic right followers murder American tourists?
  
• Is Fred Phelps really a nicer guy than Mohammad Atta? Was Timothy McVeigh?

Rosie O'Donnell is being attacked by, well, Christian fascists for saying, correctly, that hate wrapped in the guise of religion is just as wrong and just as evil when the source is Muslim or Christian or Arab or American. And she's right - hate is hate, and no amount of wrapping oneself in the mantle of God will change that simple fact. We real Christians have had it with the phonies.

It will be interesting to see if ABC/Disney, which refused to censor historical revisionist lies about September 11, now tries to censor Rosie for simply telling the truth about intolerance.

Stay tuned. Read More......