Honey I shrunk the mandate

Seems the latest polls show that the public doesn't agree with much of anything Bush is claiming as his reelection mandate. Well, too bad. They had their chance, and they kept the bozo in office. They own this broken pot of a president now. His sins are on their hands, not ours.

From the NYT:

At a time when the White House has portrayed Mr. Bush's 3.5-million-vote victory as a mandate, the poll found that Americans are at best ambivalent about Mr. Bush's plans to reshape Social Security, rewrite the tax code, cut taxes and appoint conservative judges to the bench. There is continuing disapproval of Mr. Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, with a plurality now saying it was a mistake to invade in the first place...

Nearly two-thirds of all respondents - including 51 percent of Republicans - said it was more important to reduce deficits than to cut taxes, a central element of Mr. Bush's economic agenda....

There has been a slight increase in the number of Americans who believe the nation should never have gone into Iraq. A majority of Americans continue to believe the country is going in the wrong direction, traditionally a warning sign for an incumbent....

Americans said they opposed changing the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, which Mr. Bush campaigned on in the final weeks of his campaign....

The public appears ambivalent about the two proposals that Mr. Bush has identified as his major domestic initiatives for a second term: rewriting the Social Security system and reshaping the tax code, including more tax cuts.

Read the rest of this post...

Evening open thread

Chatters. Read the rest of this post...

Out and About to Get Ugly: How many closet cases does it take to reelect a president?

Mike Signorile writes that Bush campaign chair and likely incoming RNC head Ken "I'm so straight I simply can't admit it on the record" Mehlman just gave a little talk to GOP governors in which he revealed the campaign looked at consumers' personal habits to determine how they'd vote. (I'd done an article on this topic for the Economist magazine four years ago - you can read it here.) Signorile notes, correctly, that if Mehlman can divine who we are based on our habits, it's fair game for us to do the same to him.

Here's a bit of Signorile's article:

Since he's so confident labeling people based on outward characteristics, Mehlman must understand why his being a 37-year-old "bachelor" who refuses to answer questions about his sexual orientation is a tip-off to many that he's a pathetic closet case, and a pretty vile one at that, having used antigay hatred (aka "moral values") to help elect Bush. Mehlman was actually boasting to the governors about his slick new strategies, telling them that the Bush-Cheney campaign studied voters' consumer habits—basically snooping into voters' personal lives—in targeting them.

"We did what Visa did," Mehlman bragged. "We acquired a lot of consumer data. What magazine do you subscribe to? Do you own a gun? How often do the folks go to church? Where do you send your kids to school? Are you married? Based on that, we were able to develop an exact kind of consumer model that corporate America does every day to predict how people vote—not based on where they live but how they live."

Surely Mehlman can't complain now that people are talking about his marital status and how he lives—right?

Read the rest of this post...

RADICAL RIGHT: Framers' Intent Was for Christian Nation

If you have a hard time understanding why the separation of Church and State has been so trampled on of late, take a look here and you can get a glimpse of what's going on. It's not a memorable site, but it is one that gives a sense of the depth of the brainwashing:

Well into the twentieth century, the Declaration and the Constitution were viewed as inseparable and interdependent. While the Court's change of standards has perhaps been a display of poor judgment, the Court's actions have actually been illegal under the standards of original intent. Furthermore they have violated the value system of "the laws of nature and of nature's God" established in the Declaration of Independence.

The First Amendment was clearly understood and explained by the man who wrote it and the man who first applied it as law. Fisher Ames wrote the First Amendment. He also wrote that the Bible should always remain the principle text book in America's classrooms. John Jay, original Chief-Justice U.S. Supreme Court, said it is the duty of all wise, free, and virtuous governments to help and encourage virtue and religion.

The Constitution of the United States of America was penned by the man who was head of the committee which created the final wording. That man, Governor Morris of Pennsylvania, was also the most active member of the Constitutional Convention. He spoke 173 times. He also advocated that "education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man towards God."

An early House Judiciary Committee affirmed the Founder's lack of pluralistic intent when it declared: "Christianity ...was the religion of the founders of the republic, and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants."

Lest anyone need a reminder:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Article 1

Read the rest of this post...

Clear Channel weighs in for George Bush

Clear Channel is reportedly running a billboard in Florida touting George Bush as "our leader."

They forgot the word "Dear". Read the rest of this post...

After Open Thread

Deck the halls, and a red state voter. Read the rest of this post...

Why does the GOP Congress hate America?

USA Today editorial:

When the nation is under attack, citizens normally rally together. Differences are set aside to pursue common goals.

The days after 9/11 provided many such moments. Neighbor joined neighbor. Republicans and Democrats buried politics temporarily. Even rival nations joined Americans in their grief.

But more than three years later on Capitol Hill, a pair of powerful Republican lawmakers still don't seem to grasp that spirit.

Last Saturday, they stood in the way of reforming the nation's broken intelligence system - obstructing a plan endorsed by just about every major player in Washington to address weaknesses that contributed to the 9/11 attacks. Today, because of their stubbornness, the nation remains more vulnerable to terrorism than it could be.

Read the rest of this post...

Ronnie Earle Speaks Out

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has an op-ed in today's New York Times. (The NY Times requires registration.)

Earle has been savagely attacked by the House GOP....the one's who changed their rules last week so their leaders are above the law. The whole column is worth a read, but he captures the hubris -- and lack of moral values -- that the House leadership is showing. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Every law enforcement officer depends on the moral values and integrity of society for backup; they are like body armor. The cynical destruction of moral values at the top makes it hard for law enforcement to do its job.

In terms of moral values, this is where the rubber meets the road. The rules you apply to yourself are the true test of your moral values.

The thinly veiled personal attacks on me by Mr. DeLay's supporters in this case are no different from those in the cases of any of the 15 elected officials this office has prosecuted in my 27-year tenure. Most of these officials - 12 Democrats and three Republicans - have accused me of having political motives. What else are they going to say?

For most of my tenure the Democrats held the power in state government. Now Republicans do. Most crimes by elected officials involve the abuse of power; you have to have power before you can abuse it.

There is no limit to what you can do if you have the power to change the rules. Congress may make its own rules, but the public makes the rule of law, and depends for its peace on the enforcement of the law. Hypocrisy at the highest levels of government is toxic to the moral fiber that holds our communities together.

The open contempt for moral values by our elected officials has a corrosive effect. It is a sad day for law enforcement when Congress offers such poor leadership on moral values and ethical behavior. We are a moral people, and the first lesson of democracy is not to hold the public in contempt.

Read the rest of this post...

This is what they do in the Ukraine when the election is close

Maybe new democracies get democracy better than old ones? From AP:

Ukraine's opposition leader and his American-born wife led tens of thousands of supporters in a march on parliament Tuesday to demand the government annul the results of the country's contested presidential election.

The Ukrainian Election Commission's announcement that Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych was ahead of Western-leaning candidate Viktor Yushchenko with nearly all the votes counted dismayed — and angered — many of the former Soviet republic's 48 million people.

Yushchenko on Tuesday claimed victory and asked for international recognition. He also announced a campaign of civil disobedience and alleged official fraud.

"We appeal to the parliaments and nations of the world to bolster the will of the Ukrainian people, to support their aspiration to return to democracy," a statement from Yuschenko's campaign office said.



He called on an estimated crowd of 200,000 supporters camped at the central Independence Square to walk to the parliament building ahead of an emergency session called to consider both annulling the official results and a no-confidence vote in the election commission.

Shortly thereafter, Yushchenko and his American-born wife, Kateryna Chumachenko, led the throng toward parliament.
...
If the parliament doesn't take action to solve the crisis, "we will have no choice but to block roads, airports, seize city halls," said Yuliya Tymoshenko, a prominent opposition leader and Yushchenko's ally.

Special forces were deployed near the Central Election Commission, the presidential administration and other government buildings, but police stayed away from the protesters jamming the city's main avenue for a second day. The supporters clogged the city and turned sidewalks into seas of orange, Yushchenko's campaign color. (Rob's Note: Ah, to have seen a sea of blue in Washington after this election would have been nice.))

Mykola Tomenko, a lawmaker and Yushchenko ally, told the crowd that some police had joined the opposition, though it was impossible to independently verify the claim. The Interfax news agency reported that in Lviv, Yushchenko's stronghold in western Ukraine, about 20 police guarding a regional Interior Ministry building wore orange armbands.

Although official results, with more than 99 percent of precincts counted, showed Yanukovych leading with 49.42 percent to his challenger's 46.70 percent, several exit polls had found Yushchenko the winner, one by a margin of 11 percentage points.

Yushchenko's supporters set up rows of tents awash with orange on Kiev's main artery, and they pledged to maintain their vigil until Yushchenko is declared president, raising fears of civil unrest in this nation of 48 million. Speakers rallied the crowd from a stage on Independence Square, leading them in chants of "Yushchenko! Yushchenko!"

"We have to rise up from our knees," said Lidiya Arnoldovna, an elderly woman wearing an orange armband. "These past few days I have really lived. I couldn't just sit at home."
...
Braving freezing temperatures, Ukrainians brought old coats, sweaters and blankets to the square in central Kiev, as well as food and hot drinks. The tent city even generated its own one-page newspaper, which was being handed out to supporters.
...
Observers working with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said extensive indications of voting fraud were found, including people apparently voting multiple times and voters being forced to turn over their absentee ballots to state employers.

Dmytro Schwartz, 70, a retired schoolteacher, came to Independence Square with his 11-year-old grandson, David.

"This is Ukraine's rebirth, and you should remember that," Schwartz told the boy.

I've been alive longer then Ukraine has been a democracy - why do they get a rebirth and I'm stuck in the stale, musty American democracy? Read the rest of this post...

Dolphins protect four swimmers from Great White in New Zealand

This is one of the nicest stories I have read in a while. And to think that some idiots in Congress want to make it easy again for commercial fishermen to kill dolphins in their nets.

From Reuters:

Lifesavers Rob Howes, his 15-year-old daughter Niccy, Karina Cooper and Helen Slade were swimming 100 metres (300 feet) off Ocean Beach near Whangarei on New Zealand's North Island when the dolphins herded them -- apparently to protect them from a shark.

"They started to herd us up, they pushed all four of us together by doing tight circles around us," Howes told the New Zealand Press Association.

Howes tried to drift away from the group, but two of the bigger dolphins herded him back just as he spotted a three-meter (nine feet) great white shark swimming towards the group.

"I just recoiled. It was only about 2 meters (6 feet) away from me, the water was crystal clear and it was as clear as the nose on my face," Howes said.

"They had corralled us up to protect us," he said.

The lifesavers spent the next 40 minutes surrounded by the dolphins before they could safely swim back to shore.

NOTE FROM JOHN IN DC: It's obvious why Congress wants to kill them. Saving lives is very blue state. Read the rest of this post...

(Very) Late Night Open Thread

Watching tonight's Nightline on TiVo - greatest human invention - what the hell is going on in sports? Read the rest of this post...