Every Democrat needs to read this blog post

My friend Marc just sent me the following from the National Review's blog. It's written by George Conway, a Republican heavily involved making Paula Jones a household word (i.e., he's really REALLY Republican). Yet, here is what he has to say about not just George Bush, but the entire Republican party.

And again, he's writing this on the Web site of the uber-conservative National Review:

I'm disgruntled, too, and I'm going to get it all of my chest this morning: I've never voted for a Democrat in a general election in my life, and I don't expect to anytime soon, but it's been impossible for me over the past couple of years to get enthused about the Republican party.

I voted for President Bush twice, and contributed to his campaign twice, but held my nose when I did it the second time. I don't consider myself a Republican any longer. Thanks to this Administration and the Republicans in Congress, the Republican Party today is the party of pork-barrel spending, Congressional corruption — and, I know folks on this web site don't want to hear it, but deep down they know it's true — foreign and military policy incompetence.

Frankly, speaking of incompetence, I think this Administration is the most politically and substantively inept that the nation has had in over a quarter of a century. The good news about it, as far as I'm concerned, is that it's almost over.

In one fell swoop, George Bush isn't just turning independents off of the Republican party, he's turning die-hard Republicans away.

The Democratic party has been handed a gift from God with George Bush. He is the ONLY issue we should be talking about between now and election day. And I'd say we hit on the specific messages Conway spells out: fiscal irresponsibility; corruption; and incompetence. Our goal? To woo every moderate to the Democratic party, and to horribly cripple the Republican party so even its Terri Schiavo base wants out.

Remember when the war on terror was Bush's strong point? Now even Republicans are willing to call Bush incompetent on that very issue. Before Rove and Mehlman wake up later this summer and yet again try to brand Democrats as wimps. And before Democrats find themselves facing another congressional resolution authorizing force against Iran. We need to unify and strike back hard, and now, against a president who is both hated by his own party and falling apart at the seams.

Come on gang, message message message. We can do better than "we can do better." Read the rest of this post...

Italian election results are coming in

UPDATE: I wasn't specific enough in my question. I get that Prodi apparently won the Italian lower house. But my question is: So what? What effect does that have on how a prime minister is chosen? Is it the lower house that chooses, the upper, or what? A combo? Are the upper house elections going on right now too? That's what I'd like to know, what do these results MEAN in terms of who gets picked (and how he gets picked) as the next prime minister?

And they're confusing as hell. Can someone please make heads or tails of the latest news. Read the rest of this post...

Some of my photos from today's Immigration March in DC

Click on the image above to see a very large panorama shot of the mall a bit before the second wave of demonstrators arrived.



The assembled masses around 4pm or so. This was far before the peak number had arrived, and the mall was already packed.



One of the most interesting aspects of the march was just how many real people, ordinary people, not-your-typical-demonstrating-kind-of-people were there.



Flag, and flags, and flags, and flags, and flags. You simply could NOT take a photo and NOT capture an American flag. Whoever organized this march was brilliant. And I have to say, this was the first time in years that I was proud to find myself in a sea of American flags. I was actually proud of my country again, proud to be American. A couple of years ago George Bush had deadened my pride in country. It's ironic that it took a crowd of non-Americans to bring it back.



More real people. His sign says "We pay taxes" - in Spanglish, of course.


Lots and lots and lots of young people.



The fusion of Latino and American culture, in practically every person you saw, was fascinating.



More and more and more people just kept arriving.



As Joe and I were leaving around 5pm, we saw yet another wave of demonstrators coming into the mall. There were probably 10 or 20,000 in this group alone.



We are America. Read the rest of this post...

Joe and I just got back from the MASSIVE immigration march in DC

Massive. Easily several hundred thousand people, and I'd guess even half a million (or more) at this point.

It was simply amazing. I wasn't expecting much - perhaps a few tens of thousands of people. Oh no. Sure, there were perhaps 20 or 50,000 people when we arrived around 3pm. Then the crowd started just swarming out of the metro and from various side streets. They just kept coming and coming.

And what was particularly interesting was the crowd itself. These were real people, not union organizers, not big DC special interest groups, REAL Latino families, kids, young guys and their friends, moms and dads. You could tell they weren't part of some organized group, they were just real people coming down to fight for their rights and the rights of their friends and families.

I have a ton of photos and video. Will post some shortly. Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

John and I are at the rally here in DC. People are streaming on to the Mall...it's very impressive....great energy. Read the rest of this post...

Doublespeak

Some friends have launched a new Web blog called Doublespeak, which is really a bit of a blog-meets-radio. Their current interview is with me and Harry Reid (separately), and the previous one is with Atrios and Ned Lamont (the Dem taking on Lieberman in the primary).

Check it out. Read the rest of this post...

My video rant about the Washington Post's fabricated editorial endorsing Bush's lying to the American people to win support for the Iraq war

I was a bit upset. Read the rest of this post...

Join an immigration protest today in your city

Atrios has the link to the 4-1-1 on the various protests.

Joe and I are going to head down this afternoon. Hopefully I'll get some good photos, and perhaps even some video and audio (still working on those skills via the new Mac).

And, if you attend a protest in your city, send me a few good photos - and please don't just copy some off the Web, I want REAL photos that you've taken please :-) Read the rest of this post...

Who do YOU think the Washington Post will pick as their liberal blogger?

Supposedly the Washington Post is looking to hire a liberal blogger and a conservative blogger this time around. I was just wondering who the Post will pick as their "liberal blogger.

My vote goes for Jeff Gannon.

Yours? Read the rest of this post...

Bush official leaking (or lying) to spin the Bush leak

A "senior administration official" is leaking anonymously to the NY Times about the Bush leak. Of course, that SAO is spinning the Times. The question reporters need to ask is whether they can believe anything Bush officials tell them. The lying starts at the top. Bush lied about starting a war so lying about anything else is easy. Top officials in the Bush White House have been accused of lying under oath. Lying to reporters -- and the American people -- is nothing:

The disclosure on Sunday appeared intended to bolster the White House argument that Mr. Bush was acting well within his legal authority when he ordered that key conclusions of the classified intelligence estimate should be revealed to make clear that intelligence agencies believed Mr. Hussein was seeking uranium in Africa.

Moreover, the disclosure seemed intended to suggest that Mr. Bush might have played only a peripheral role in the release of the classified material and was uninformed about the specifics — like the effort to dispatch Mr. Libby to discuss the estimate with reporters.

In general, Bush plays a peripheral role at the White House and is uninformed about specifics on any issue. That's not news.

At least the Times questions the spin from the White House:

The explanation offered Sunday left open several questions, including when Mr. Bush acted and whether he did so on the advice or at the request of Mr. Cheney. Still unclear is the nature of the communication between Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. Also unknown is whether Mr. Bush fully realized what information Mr. Cheney planned to disclose through Mr. Libby or was aware of the precise use that Mr. Cheney intended to make of the material.

It also is unclear whether anything coming from the Bush White House has a grain of truth. Read the rest of this post...

Monday Morning Open Thread

Let's get it started. Read the rest of this post...

Chirac dumps youth worker law - so what happens to Villepin now?

So how long will Villepin remain as the PM now that Chirac has replaced the CPE (youth job law) with a new law that is aimed at helping youth from poor areas gain employment. It's not a bad thing that the government is finally getting around to taking proactive action to help improve the employment situation in those bad areas, but that should have happened a long time ago and should not be a replacement for desperately needed labor reform in France. This move is a solid blow to Villepin so another government shake up may be coming. Read the rest of this post...

Why the Condi PR blitz?

I've never understood the fascination with Condi and following her testimony to the 9/11 Commission, I've been at even more of a loss to figure out why anyone likes her. With the recent flood of PR around Condi, clearly much friendlier and softer than after Katrina when she was caught shoe shopping and attending grand premiers while the disaster was unfolding in NOLA, The Independent asks "what is she up to?" which makes you wonder. What is it that the GOP sees in her that makes them believe she is a decent potential candidate in the future? I know that the bar is set pretty low these days, but all of this talk of Condi as a presidential contender is amusing. Read the rest of this post...

Josh Marshall: The Washington Post has made its deal with power

When Josh gets bitchy, you've really jumped the shark:

Editorial pages are for opinion. But legitimate opinion journalism is constrained by facts, as nearly as we can know them as we put pen to paper. And by that measure, the Washington Post's editorial page has skidded outside the boundaries of journalistic legitimacy on any number of issues but most glaringly on our involvement in the Middle East.... the authors of this editorial don't appear to read the news pages of their own paper or their best competitors.

For whatever reason, the Post has chosen to throw in its lot with the flurry of mendacious rhetoric and the white-washed investigations, all of which amount to a grand pen and paper and word game truss barely holding together the body of official lies that is still barely governing the capital.

They've made their deal with power. They should justify it on those grounds rather than choosing to mislead their readers.

More criticism of the Post from DailyKos here and here and here.

And don't miss ThinkProgress' refutation of the Washington Post editorial board's lies here. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Bedtime Read the rest of this post...