Creationist theme park in England?

Kentucky comes to England.

The latest salvo in creationism's increasingly ferocious battle with evolution is about to be fired in Lancashire. Not in a fiery sermon preached from the pulpit, but in the form of a giant Christian theme park that will champion the book of Genesis and make a multi-media case that God created the world in seven days.

The AH Trust, a charity set up last year by a group of businessmen alarmed by the direction in which they see society heading, has identified a number of potential sites in the north west of England to build the £3.5m [$7m] Christian theme park.

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Voters "very dissatisfied" with US economy

The GOP isn't going to like this news. For the Democrats, who offers the best solution for repairing the economy, including health care, which is part of the economic concern?

Just a few years ago when the GOP was winning elections, they bragged about the common sense of the American public who "got it." Yes, they have come around, haven't they? Read More......

Clinton touts foreign policy experience, but doesn't that revive those Iraq and Iran votes?

Apparently the campaign to increase Hillary's "likeability" is over. Today, Hillary Clinton talked tough about foreign policy today, but it seems like her point has some potential for bringing up ugly and contradictory stuff:

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton warned Iowans Thursday against voting for a candidate who doesn't have foreign policy experience, suggesting her leading rivals would be no better than President Bush in that regard.

"It is tempting any time things seem quieter for a minute on the international front to think that we don't need a president who is up to speed on foreign affairs and military matters," Clinton said.

Here are my two thoughts after reading Clinton's remarks:

1) Is Hillary touting the experience that includes her vote for the Iraq War and her recent vote for the Kyl-Lieberman Iran resolution? She sided with Bush on those foreign policy votes. For many Democrats, those votes define her foreign policy experience -- and she's supposed to be courting Democrats these days.

2) Bill Clinton. The very same arguments could have been (and were) used against him in 1992. It wasn't like he had a broad range of foreign policy experience from his perch as Governor of Arkansas. Unlike Bush, Clinton surrounded himself with smart people -- and any Democratic President would, too. Read More......

What "rumor and gossip" have the McCain campaign so upset?

From Editor and Publisher, we learn that the McCain campaign is fighting hard to stop a potential NY Times article about McCain and "some sort of improper activities involving a lobbyist."

The McCain campaign is fighting so hard, that that they've issued a statement to E&P; reading "It is unfortunate that rumor and gossip enter into political campaigns." Hmmm. Interesting choice of words. John and I were just talking about this -- and when we hear the McCain campaign's outrage over "rumor and gossip" it sure sounds like more than improper influence peddling -- or is that just us?

This popped up on the DrudgeReport, so basically McCain, who may or may not be making a comeback, is now pushing the issue into the traditional media, as E&P; notes in its article. Check it out after the break.
Calls to several staffers at the Times by E&P; have not been returned yet, but, oddly, the McCain campaign has responded in a rather oddly worded statement on the purported Times probe. Drudge headlines the story: "McCain Pleads with NYT to Spike Story."

The McCain response was emailed to E&P; from Arlington, Va., and it comes from McCain's Communications Director Jill Hazelbaker:

"It is unfortunate that rumor and gossip enter into political campaigns. John McCain has a 24-year record of serving this country with honor and integrity. He has never violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists, and he will not allow a smear campaign to distract from the important issues facing our country.

"Americans are sick and tired of this kind of gutter politics. John McCain is the most experienced and prepared to lead as commander and chief, and he will continue to run a positive campaign on the issues."

Drudge also suggests that McCain "has hired DC power lawyer Bob Bennett to mount a bold defense against charges of giving special treatment to a lobbyist!" Now the story has gone "mainstream," with full reports by The Associated Press and Howard Kurtz in The Washington Post. Here are excerpts from those two reports. Read More......

The Grinch who stole SCHIP

Courtesy of Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO). It's clever and funny:
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Two new polls show deadlocked race in Iowa

From Political Wire:

Political Wire got an advance look at a new Strategic Vision poll in Iowa that also shows the Democratic presidential race in a statistical tie. Sen. Barack Obama leads with 30%, followed by John Edwards and Sen. Hillary Clinton tied at 27%.

For Republicans, Mike Huckabee leads with 31%, followed by Mitt Romney at 25%, Fred Thompson at 16%, Sen. John McCain at 8%, Rudy Giuliani at 6%.

The survey's margin of error is 4.5% and will be formally released tomorrow.

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Bush declares war on Christmas

He just talked about the White House "holiday celebration." Why not call it a Christmas party? Because Bush is doing what everyone does - they use the word holiday so that it includes Hannukah and eother seasonal holidays, not just Christmas. I can't wait for FOX News to hold Bush accountable for his war on Christmas. Oh that's right, FOX is a Republican front organization and not a real news network. Never mind. Read More......

Podcast Episode 8: Joe explains the Iowa Caucuses

I finally get Joe to explain how the Iowa caucuses work in a way that even I could understand (actually, I still didn't totally understand it, it's pretty horrible). Also, we discuss the latest polls, Hillary's possible campaign shake-up, McCain's mini-surge, the Huckaboom, Ron Paul's fundraising, and my favorite wackadoo Cynthia McKinney is running for president! God, please let her in the general election debates. Couldn't you just see her throwing her cell phone at Romney? You can listen to the our latest podcast simply by clicking this link (it's an mp3). This episode is around 20 minutes.

As always, you can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes here, or you can subscribe to the podcast's RSS feed here. And you can listen to any of our old shows via either of the two links in the preceding sentence. Read More......

Rudy is fading fast. Republicans voters aren't loving the Republican candidates.

No wonder Rudy got so sick last night. He probably saw the latest polls.

National polls don't really give us a sense of what is happening in the early states. But, when a frontrunner tanks like Rudy did in the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, then, it's interesting.

The GOP's frontrunner is dropping fast. Really fast. He dropped 13 points nationally -- from 33% support from GOP primary voters last month to just 20% now. Admittedly, Rudy's demise is fun to watch. But this also shows the GOPers have no front-runner. The actual Republican voters seem to despise all of their choices. What a fickle bunch. More poll details after the break.
After a month’s worth of mostly negative media reports, his campaign’s decision to decrease his activity in the early nominating states and the rise of GOP rival Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani’s national standing has plummeted in the most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, providing more evidence that the contest for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination is wide open.

According to the poll, Giuliani — who has been the clear leader in all previous NBC/Journal surveys this year — is now tied nationally with Mitt Romney at 20 percent among Republican primary voters. They are followed by Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, at 17 percent; Arizona Sen. John McCain at 14 percent; and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson at 11 percent.

For Giuliani, it's a decline of 13 points since last month, when the former New York City mayor led the GOP field at 33 percent — followed by McCain at 16 percent, Thompson at 15 percent, Romney at 11 percent and Huckabee at 8 percent.

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Thursday Morning Open Thread

Morning.

So Giuliani ended up in the hospital last night with "the flu." He's tanking in polls, too.

What else? Read More......

Bear Stearns sued for fraud and deception on subprime "coverup"

And the feeding frenzy begins. CYA lawsuits should start flooding the market soon enough. If anyone believes that buyers and sellers alike were not aware of what was going on, they are nuts and only kidding themselves. If the banks failed to understand what they were buying - despite teams of lawyers and supposed financial experts - well, tough. Isn't that why these companies are (were) raking in the big bucks?

Fortunately for the banks (unfortunately for everyone else) Paulson and the Bush administration are doing their best to bail out them out. This way, banks win even when they're losing. Just add the costs to the taxpayers and worry about it later. Nice work, if you can find it. Read More......

Bush administration blocks California emissions law

Leave it to a Bush-led EPA to shoot down efforts to clean up the environment. Only a GOP team could pull off such a ridiculous stunt, using the old "we would really like to have a better system, so let's not take any action until we get there" routine. Please. This administration has no interest whatsoever in doing anything positive about the environment. Big Oil and Detroit might not like it. The Bush plan is to push the issue into the Washington bureaucracy and let it die on the vine, with a little help from dinosaurs such as Rep. Dingell (D - General Motors.)

Maybe our next president will care about an EPA that is focused on the environment and not polluting special interests. If only trees and air could pay lobbyists... If only we had a democracy that was actually about people and not the most powerful lobbyists. Read More......