Fundies pissed at Bush again

Master, you've created a monster...

From the American Family Association's propaganda organ AgapePress:

NEWS BRIEFS
...It remains unclear what the White House plans to do about the controversy surrounding a vile rock music performer who is scheduled to be part of the inaugural celebrations later this month in Washington, DC. Pro-family leaders reacted with disgust on Thursday to word that Kid Rock will perform at a Republican youth concert hosted by President Bush's two daughters. Kid Rock, known for his X-rated lyrics and associations with drugs, alcohol and pornography, boasted in one 2001 song, "I met the president when I was half-stoned," and in another of his provocatively profane lyrics, sang of "pimpin' Barbara Bush." Nevertheless, the Detroit-based bad boy rocker claims to be a die-hard Republican and a fan of the president's. But American Family Association founder Don Wildmon calls the recording artist's invitation a "slap in the face" to the Christian conservatives who helped elect George W. Bush to a second term in the Oval Office. The pro-family leader wonders of those planning the inaugural events, "What in the world are these people thinking?" So far, all the White House is saying is that Kid Rock has not yet been confirmed as a performer at the concert; however, a spokeswoman for the Presidential Inaugural Committee was quoted in the New York Daily News as emphasizing that there is "no greater defender of family values" than the president.

Oh please, the very-single 37 year old Ken Mehlman who is afraid to say publicly if he's straight is about to become the head of the Republican party. What the hell do you people think is going on? This administration is being controled by people who don't agree with your cultural agenda. Yes, they suck up to you when you kick and scream, but when push comes to shove they think you're crazy freaks. Do you honestly think a "family values" administration would appoint a guy as party head who for some reason won't acknowledge his heterosexuality? Now that's family values. Read the rest of this post...

Sinclair implicated in Armstrong Williams scandal

Big surprise there.

Gosh, I hope Sinclair doesn't sue me for posting a press release :-) Read the rest of this post...

Armstrong Williams is a big fat whore

Well, a small skinny whore, among other alleged things that I won't go into, since Mr. Williams likes to sue people (he was sued for male-on-male sexual harassment a few years back, then countered sued the people suing him until, reportedly, one of the folks he was suing tried to put in the record the fact that they claim they saw Williams at a gay bar - suddenly the law suit went away).

Anyway, it appears the Bushies were paying Williams to give his "independent" analysis of the Bush's No Child Left Behind program.

$240,000. Jesus Friggin Christ.

But Armstrong is an honorable man.

The story from the SF Chronicle:

The Bush administration paid a prominent commentator to promote the No Child Left Behind schools law to fellow blacks and to give the education secretary media time, records show.

A company run by Armstrong Williams, the syndicated commentator, was paid $240,000 by the Education Department. The goal was to deliver positive messages about Bush's education overhaul, using Williams' broad reach with minorities.

The deal, which drew a fast rebuke from Democrats on Capitol Hill, is the latest to put the department on the defensive for the way it has promoted Bush's signature domestic policy.

The contract required Williams' company, the Graham Williams Group, to produce radio and TV ads that feature one-minute "reads" by Education Secretary Rod Paige. The deal also allowed Paige and other department officials to appear as studio guests with Williams.

Williams, one of the leading black conservative voices in the country, was also to use his influence with other black journalists to get them to talk about No Child Left Behind.

Read the rest of this post...

Sinclair threatens to sue Media Matter and all of us too

The evil Sinclair broadcasting group, the group that planned to run the entire anti-Kerry attack film on their TV stations around the country right before the election, has threatened to sue David Brock's MediaMatters AND they've threatened to sue ANYONE who JOINS MEDIA MATTERS EMAIL LIST!

Here's my favorite quote from Sinclair's release:

Although Sinclair respects the rights of these organizations to voice their opinions, we find inappropriate that their tactics include advocating their constituency to contact our advertisers in a blatant attempt to use economic pressure to censor the speech of Sinclair. Moreover, the continued misrepresentation of the facts surrounding any company's advertising practices regarding Sinclair stations constitutes "trade defamation" which would entitle Sinclair to seek damages in a court of law. Sinclair will aggressively pursue any organization or any individual which engages in such defamation, including individuals who lend their names to mass e-mail campaigns spreading such misinformation.

Oh man. Make. My. Day.

Sinclair's threatening press release today.

David Brock's letter to Staples in response to Sinclair claiming that Staples never promised to quit advertising.

In response, join Media Matters email list and let's all get sued together!

PS Read through Brock's letter, you'll see that Media Matters has the goods on Staples - basically, Staples is now flip-flopping on their promise to drop Sinclair's news shows. Read the rest of this post...

Arnold's Screwing over the kids of CA

So, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Kidnegarten Cop is giving the shaft to education in California:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has shocked education groups by not only breaking a deal that would give schools more money this year, but also proposing to weaken the Proposition 98 school-funding guarantee in the future.

Arnold is supposed to be the personification of a Republican Moderate. Now we know what that means -- destroy public education. Clearly, this is his version of "leave every child behind." Looks like he is well on his way to achieving that:

A RAND Corp. study released this week ranks California among the lowest in the nation in per-pupil spending, and its students' academic achievement among the worst in the country.

Read the rest of this post...

DNC chair wannabe's troublesome relationship with Scaife-financed right-wing think tank

That would be Tim Roemer. Just what we need. Another Democrat who belongs to the Republican wing of the Democratic party. Read the rest of this post...

Noontime (in the east) open thread

Don't forget to thank Senator Boxer for signging on to the Ohio electoral vote challenge. That was pretty amazing for a Senator to do (they're usually a bit more shy about such things than House members). And even more amazing nowadays when far too many Dems have no spine. She deserves a big thank you from everyone across the country. (And I'd say even you non-Americans should call, if you like - I worked on the Hill, it'd be kind of cool to have a foreigner thanking us for standing up for Democracy.)

Here offices:

Washington D.C.
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3553

Sacramento
501 I Street, Suite 7-600
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 448-2787
(916) 448-2563 fax

San Francisco
1700 Montgomery Street, Suite 240
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 403-0100
(415) 956-6701 fax

Los Angeles
312 N. Spring Street, Suite 1748
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 894-5000
(213) 894-5042 fax

Fresno
1130 O Street, Suite 2450
Fresno, CA 93721
(559) 497-5109
(559) 497-5111 fax

San Diego
600 B Street, Suite 2240
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 239-3884
(619) 239-5719 fax

Inland Empire
201 North E Street, Suite 210
San Bernardino, CA 92401
(909) 888-8525
(909) 888-8613 fax Read the rest of this post...

IOKIYAR: It's okay if you're a Republican

Paul Krugman.

I still can't believe we're about to have an attorney general who thinks torture is okay. Or, as my foreign-born taxi driver said yesterday, "okay to torture MUSLIMS."

How can a single Senator vote for this un-American scum. Read the rest of this post...

Dems. Fighting Back on Social Security

The Boston Globe has an article today titled, "Democrats try to alter Social Security debate: Discussion of cuts challenges GOP view of program in 'crisis.'" This is one of the first pieces I've seen that gives the impression that not only do the Dems. have a strategy, it may actually be working:

President Bush's strategy of saying that Social Security's "crisis is now" as a rationale for creating personal investment accounts has been offset by unanticipated attacks from Democratic leaders that the White House is manufacturing an excuse to boost support for private accounts.

The attacks have made the majority of Republicans uncharacteristically nervous that public discussion of benefit cuts by Bush's aides will backfire on the party. A memo by the Senate Republican Policy Committee warned this week that a plan under serious consideration by Bush "could be mislabeled as a benefit cut."

The White House and the Republicans on the Hill seem to think they really do have a mandate to do whatever they want. And, what's more, they seem to think that there won't be any real opposition. In fact, they seem genuinely shocked by it:

Like numerous Republicans, Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire said in an interview that he has been surprised by the Democratic strategy of charging that Bush is manufacturing a crisis in Social Security as a ploy to garner support for private accounts. "I didn't expect a wing of the Democratic Party to respond by saying, 'This really isn't a problem.' It is very hard to sustain that argument," Sununu said.

Okay, maybe, just maybe, we are on to something here. Fighting Bush and the GOP really makes a difference. I know it's just one story on just one issue, but let's hope this is the start of a new ballgame. And, the rest of us have to keep up the pressure and become the echo chamber.
Read the rest of this post...

Senators: Please Make Condi answer some questions

Next Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding hearings on the nomination of Condi Rice as Secretary of State. Please, please, please make her answer some questions this time around.

Last spring, Rice appeared before the 9/11 Commission after much resistance. Her performance was a lesson in filibustering. She never answered any questions, especially about the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing which warned that Al Qaeda was prepared to attack in America. In fact, the document was titled "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US." Condi never did explain why, with such a dire warning, Bush stayed on his ranch in Texas.

The 9/11 Commission did an admirable job. But their format precluded tough questioning. Maybe, just maybe, a Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee will ask Dr. Rice some questions she will have to answer.

Democrats have never held Bush accountable for what happened on 9/11. They have been conditioned to act like questioning his actions is somehow unpatriotic. Throughout the campaign, Bush talked about never returning to the September 10th mindset. Bush and Rice never had to explain their August 6th mindset.

Make Condi explain it next week, please. Read the rest of this post...

Dinosaur footprints found in Maryland

What a cool story! Apparently amateur Ray Stanford discovered the footprints in a streambed near the beltway, just outside of DC. I saw a few sets of footprints in Africa and it was one of my favorite days while traveling.

In addition to being the first tracks ever found of the dinosaur, the footprints are the first evidence that members of the Hypsilophodon family roamed what is now Maryland.

Read the rest of this post...

Bush influencing Canada with presciption drug exports?

I wasn't aware of Bush having much influence with Canada these days but utlimately it's not up to Canada, UK, Australia, Europe, etc. to supply the US with prescription medicine. Sure Bush lied during the debates when he suggested that he would consider cheap drug imports but the seniors who are now howling have been around long enough and should have known that Bush was a liar. What were they thinking when they went out and voted for the guy?

Let's see how receptive Americans are to the GOP medical program in 2008 after we get cut off for a few years and shell out top dollar for our medicine.
Read the rest of this post...

Why does the GOP hate Americans?

What ever happened to responsibility with these people running the corportate world? The Bushistas are on the trail pushing for litigation reform, crying about the poor companies that were financially hurt by asbestos litigation. Boo fucking hoo. What's next? A pitty party for Monsanto for producing Agent Orange? I won't disagree that there are extreme cases but how about some real facts and figues instead of these pathetic stories that somehow always seem to mirror the GOP favorite about the welfare mother driving a Cadilac.

Considering the rubber stamp situation that we have over at the FDA, watch out for any changes to litigation laws dealing with Big Pharmaceutical. The current GOP/Big Pharmaceutical logic is that because the FDA approves a drug, it's not possible to litigate because it went through testing and was approved. This ignores the reality that the FDA is funded by the industry and does what they damn well want.

Oh what an ownership society the GOP is creating. No one owns responsibility for anything.
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Bush and political capital

Approval rating at 49%, disapproval for war in Iraq at 54% and even his war on terror split down the middle. Reagan and Clinton came into their second terms with closer to 60% approval, ever so slightly closer to mandate numbers.
Read the rest of this post...