Friday Orchid Blogging

A panoramic shot of a sea of phalaenopsis (moth) orchids at Hausermann's Orchids in the Chicago area. I visited it last week and thought I'd play with the panoramic function I just discovered in photoshop. I just love going to greenhouses - not always to shop, it's just fun walking through the literally 10 or so greenhouses full of flowering plants a place like Hausermann's has.

Click the image and hopefully you'll see the much larger version I uploaded. Enjoy! Read the rest of this post...

Cliff's Corner

The Week That Was 4/28/06

Another week. More preposterousness to report.

I am having a difficult time concentrating on the task at hand right now, as I am eagerly awaiting my $100 check from Congress to see if I can get myself “hooked up” with any of Randy Duke Cunningham’s friends. A paltry sum to be sure, and I don’t have the votes to trade for venereal disease and am not a Republican political hack running the CIA (apparently Porter is concentrating on the wrong kinds of leaks), but I figure in George Bush’s Washington, one must dare to dream.

So members of the family values party—you know the front for Limbaugh’s Larry King-like marriage relay, the militarystud.com reporter, phone-sex falafels, congressmen who only minimally asphyxiate their mistresses and mayors who support amendments outlawing gay marriage while surreptitiously Scouting the local Cubs---it turns out, enjoy trysts with strangers in the night at their favorite nostalgic den of sin the Watergate. I knew this was a group that had figuratively been caught with their pants down on virtually everything that has happened since the dawn of the Bush Era, but I wasn’t aware they had the kind of commitment that would take this thing to the next level, with women they would see drawn and quartered if their base ever got its way.

Where is Pat Robertson when we need him to direct God’s wrath in a particular direction? Because when God’s done with those heathens in Dover, PA, the malevolent members of Corporate Mammon would seem to be the guys that should next be bracing for a lightening bolt. I admit I haven’t read my Bible lately, but I am guessing we’re way past Golden Calf territory here.

I mean I know their abstinence programs in our schools have led to more STDs than an average week for Courtney Love, but I thought the grown-ups in the Republican Party understood how important chastity was if we’re going to win the War on Terror. How is Tony Snow’s hair going to explain this one when it’s soon required to take the podium? How will Hot Tub Tom keep his promise of making this nation safe again for Christians with this kind if amoral behavior taking place right under his nose? How will President Bush react to more corrupt GOPers he has likely struck a pose with in numerous photos while only remembering casually meeting at the White House Kwanzaa Party? And how can we allow this to go on when Ken Mehlman has remained corporally unsullied while he waits to meet the perfect womanly companion?

To take this a step further, what if Joe Lieberman’s right? I mean if criticizing the president is tantamount to undermining the War on Terror, then what does copulation with prostitutes say when the man’s own wife has already complained that Desperate Housewives is her surrogate husband when darkness comes hither? We’re talking aiding and abetting Al Qaeda now.

So let me end by saying, please Republicans, stop undermining the War on Terror. The values that we all hold dear should not be auctioned to the nicest pair of lower hind limbs. If you should feel an urge, and it is simply uncontrollable, I am sure Clarence Thomas can apprise you of where to find the appropriate viewing material to get you past the primordial DTs. Read the rest of this post...

Limbaugh Mug Shot T-shirts Now AVAILABLE

The AMERICAblog Rush Limbaugh Mug Shot Shop is now at your service. This is the image that is on the products.



Below is a sample ringer-t (they come in various colors).



And who can resist the mugshot mug.



Click here for the shop, we got it all. Read the rest of this post...

You can never have too many of these

Read the rest of this post...

Limbaugh's Mug Shot

The things that happen when I try to get out of the house. Read the rest of this post...

Rush Arrested

Breaking on CNN..Rush has been arrested for prescription fraud.

Yes, there is now a Rush mug shot. Read the rest of this post...

GOP governor, and former head of the Republican, Haley Barbour now tied to phone-jamming felony

It's time to throw the Republicans out of Washington and get our country back. Read the rest of this post...

Buy Glenn's Book

Liberal blogger Glenn Greenwald's new book, "How Would a Patriot Act?", hit #1 this week on Amazon.com's sales and it hasn't even been released yet. Please check it out via the link at left (just click the book), and consider buying a copy. It's not that expensive, and is an important book - and a great example of a blogger putting his expertise where his mouth is, so to speak :-) Read the rest of this post...

April is now deadliest month in 2006

67 soldiers dead and April isn't over yet:

An American soldier was killed in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Friday, as April became the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Iraq this year.

Is this progress? Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

Keep it coming. Read the rest of this post...

3,000 terrorist attacks worldwide in 2004, 11,000 in 2005 - you do the math

Of course Bush says we just can't compare 2004's stats with last year's stats. Oh no, of course not.

Perhaps my favorite part of the new report is the following:

Leaders of al-Qaida lost some control of the terror network last year due to the arrests and deaths of top operational planners...

Sure, the number of terrorist attacks increased four-fold last year, but at least Al Qaeda is less in control. I'm sure the dead will find that very comforting.

If this is success, I have a civil war in Iraq I'd like to sell you. Read the rest of this post...

Another GOP Hooker Scandal

Not that we ever doubted it, but Jeff Gannon isn't the only GOP hooker. Looks like he's got company. Lots of it. TPM Muckraker has the latest update on the developing scandal about lobbyist sponsored "hospitality suites." Seems those suites were full service.

The GOP gives new meaning to the term "pay to play." Lots of action in that Republican Party which is always so concerned about everyone else's moral values (and don't forget, they'll soon be voting again to "protect marriage.")

Georgia10 at DailyKos has a good update on the hooker scandal, too.

Wonder if the traditional media will be able to cover this story -- unlike the Gannon scandal which they basically ignored.

UPDATE: Even more. Think Progress has the transcript of an interview on Scarborough Country last night with Dean Calbreath from the San Diego Union Tribune:

We and a number of other papers have been on this for about six months or so. We have all been looking for the break in this and the Wall Street Journal found it, which is the confirmation that the feds were actually looking at this. For the past six months there we have been hearing a lot of rumors that not only the Congressman Cunningham but as many as a half dozen other Congressmen may have been involved in this. And we’ve also been hearing about the limousine service that Brent Wilkes used to bring prostitutes to the Watergate hotel and the Grand Westin in Washington.

Read the rest of this post...

Bipartisan Senate Katrina report faults Bush

Now isn't this interesting. Remember that sham commission that Senator Frist and George Bush wanted instead of the REAL Katrina commission? They didn't want the independent commission because they were afraid it would blast Bush? Well, it seems the congressional commission, the sham commission, is now blasting Bush.

A Senate inquiry into the government's Hurricane Katrina failures ripped the Bush administration anew Thursday and urged the scrapping of the nation's disaster response agency. But with a new hurricane season just weeks away, senators conceded that few if any of their proposals could become reality in time.

The bipartisan investigation into one of the worst natural disasters in the nation's history singled out
President Bush and the White House as appearing indifferent to the devastation until two days after the storm hit.

First off, who first criticized Bush for being indifferent to Katrina even before the hurricane hit? Why, I believe it was a blog... hmmm... which one would that be?

Second, the Republicans are in all-out "throw Bush under the bus" mode at this point. There is simply no way they would permit the report to blame Bush so directly unless they saw Bush as a major liability.

He's radioactive. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

What will Bush do to destroy the constitution today? Read the rest of this post...

State Department report tells us what we already suspected

Iraq is becoming the place to be for terrorists of the world and is making the threat from terrorism even worse than before. I can already see the medal of freedom being handed out to Rummy and Condi for the heckuva job they have done.

The official told CNN that, with al Qaeda's senior leadership scattered and on the run, autonomous cells inspired by al Qaeda's extremist ideology present a greater challenge because they are smaller, harder to detect and more difficult to counter.

The annual State Department's Patterns of Global Terrorism report will also cite Iraq as a key front in anti-terrorism efforts. The official acknowledged that Iraq has become "both a war and a cause," which has further radicalized Muslims.

Read the rest of this post...

So much for promoting democracy around the world

Instead, the White House is selectively choosing when and where to talk about democracy. Bush is now sending out Cheney to do the talking with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, two countries generally not associated with links of any kind to democracy other than repression. Good ol' Condi meanwhile is heaping praise on Equatorial Guinea, another country known for repression, torture and naturally, heaps of oil. Equatorial Guinea is also good friends with Robert Mugabe, someone who is lacking oil and has been brutal with political dissent but somehow makes it on to the bad list for the WH.

So are we going to support world democracy or are we going to deepen our ties to oil dictators? Read the rest of this post...

Nepal parliament to reconvene, new PM named

After a tense period of mass protests and violent responses from state security forces, Nepal appears to be settling down, for now. Parliament, which had been dissolved by the king, is scheduled to start and a new PM is due to be sworn in. The fact that he is ailing and might not be able to attend the ceremony is odd but all sides seem ready to come together. The Maoist rebels have even called for a three month cease fire to give the new government a chance to address issues. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

I'm sure if Joe mentioned this, but if and when Karl Rove gets indicted, we are so popping the champagne. I think we're throwing a party as well. Actually, we'll all need to throw parties, and take pics, and post them. Read the rest of this post...