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Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Cafferty [hearts] CREW



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CNN's Jack Cafferty gave a big shout out to our buddies at CREW today. It's about Dick Cheney hiding the list of conservative religious nuts who have visited him at the vice president's mansion.

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Bush suddenly worried that immigration debate might be getting a bit bigoted



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Gee, you think? It's not like the immigration debate hasn't played out along the typical GOP game plan - if you don't have anything to rally the base, pick on a minority and make them a threat to all of western civilization. The Republicans have already worked their way through blacks, women, Jews, gays, then Muslims, and now Latinos. Perhaps Bush is getting concerned that the bigotry-well is starting to run a little dry - after all, to twist the words of Martin Niemöller, once you've demonized everyone, there's no one left to demonize. More from Froomkin at WashingtonPost.com:
President Bush said yesterday he fears that the backlash against immigration being incited by opponents of his legalization proposal could result in the nation losing its soul.

His comments came in an intense interview aboard Air Force One with McClatchy Newspapers. "I'm deeply concerned about America losing its soul," Bush said. "Immigration has been the lifeblood of a lot of our country's history." He added: "If we don't solve the problem it's going to affect America. It will affect our economy and it will affect our soul."
Oh, honey, we already lost our soul somewhere between the invasion of Iraq and rescinding habeas corpus. Read the rest of this post...

25 GOP Senators may vote for Democratic Iraq withdrawal timetable in September



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Yes, the vote last week was a disappointment, but in the end this war is going to be the end of Bush and the GOP. From the National Review Online:
Iraq--the Coming GOP Collapse? [Rich Lowry]

Was talking to an influential Republican strategist who thinks if Iraq looks the way it does now in September, Bush will lose about 25 Senate Republicans on a bill with some sort of timetable for withdrawal.
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Concerned Women for America spokesman blasts Mary Cheney and girlfriend as just "playing house," not "real parents," birth of son is "tragedy"



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And the far-right got upset that we criticized Jerry Falwell after his death. That doesn't even come close to dissing a newborn baby. But there you have it, Stephen Bennett, a spokesman for the Concerned Women for America, one of the largest religious right groups, today blasted Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter, Mary, and her partner Heather Poe for having a baby out of wedlock. As we reported yesterday, the White House published a baby announcement on the Vice President's portion of the White House Web site, noting that the Mary and Heather were both "parents" of the newborn child.

(Bennett is the same guy who, only four months ago, was angling for a meeting with President Bush. Funny, I'm guessing that isn't going to be happening now.)

Well, that set the religious right off, big time. Here is what Bennett had to say about Mary and Heather having a baby, then I've posted his press release in its entirety - it's a must-read of venom.
SBM PRAISES parents and individuals - mothers and fathers - who have taken on the noble task of adopting children and giving them a chance at life in the God ordained family unit including a Daddy and Mommy. Every child deserves a Daddy and Mommy. We understand, sometimes through death or divorce, that unit is broken - and parents do the best they could to raise and nurture their child or children. That's where we as the Body of Christ step in to help and be there for the family and child. We celebrate these individuals and families. Sometimes in a second heterosexual marriage, children are adopted. We praise these men and women who do all they could to raise these children. THESE ARE REAL PARENTS. This is NOT playing "house."

Homosexual parenting though is something TOTALLY different. It "mimicks" the real and the natural
....
And here is Bennett's press release. I can't even begin to excerpt it or bold it, it's that bad. Read it:
OFFICIAL SBM PRESS RELEASE 05/30/07:

White House Officially Recognizes Homosexual Unions and Parenting?

Contact: The Parents Group ~ SBM's National Office, 203-926-6960

HUNTINGTON, Conn., May 30 /Christian Newswire/ -- On May 23, 2007, the White House, silently and without any fanfare, released an official White House photo of Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne Cheney, welcoming their sixth grandchild, Samuel David Cheney, into the Cheney fold.

The beautiful little tyke weighed in at 8 lbs., 6 oz. and was born at 9:46 a.m. at Sibley House in Washington, D.C.

What is extremely troubling is the official White House caption that appears underneath the photo on the official White House website:

"... His parents are the Cheney's daughter Mary, and her partner, Heather Poe. White House photo by David Bohrer."

Since when have two homosexual women been able to naturally procreate?

Fact is Mary Cheney, the Vice President's daughter - in one way or another - received a male's sperm. She is the biological mother, parent number one, and some man, somewhere out there, is Samuel David's real biological father, parent number two.

Unlike the official White House photo caption, a man and a woman, a Daddy and a Mommy, are Samuel David Cheney's REAL biological parents.

Then who is Heather Poe?

Heather Poe is Mary Cheney's live-in lesbian lover. She may act like a parent, she may treat the baby as a parent, she may love this baby with all of her heart, but in this reality we all live in, Heather Poe is NOT the baby's real parent. She has NO biological connection to the child whatsoever. Some man, the baby's real Daddy, is the child's other REAL parent.

If the Vice President and his wife Lynne are joining their daughter Mary in playing this homosexual game of "house," then all have chosen their roles and designated lesbian lover Heather Poe as the "Daddy."

Everyone knows there can only be one REAL biological Mommy. We are all grown adults. Playing "house" is a game for children, not for The White House or the Vice President and his wife.

What is so hypocritical of this Administration is its "double-speak."

President George W. Bush held several presses conferences calling for a Federal Marriage Amendment to protect the God-ordained institution of marriage between one man and one woman, while homosexuals pushed for the union of two men or two women to be equally recognized as real "marriage."

However, the President's number two, right hand man, Vice President Dick Cheney, clearly rebels against his superior, makes a public mockery of the President and the current Administration he is supposed to represent, and clearly holds to a different set of moral standards and beliefs.

When President Bush stood on the victory stage several years ago after being elected into office by values voters, Mary Cheney was on stage as well with her lesbian lover, Heather Poe. It was a slap in the face to the values voters who had just elected the duo into office. That wound has never healed.

While this little innocent child Samuel David Cheney deserves every fighting chance at life, the sins of two women, Mary Cheney and Heather Poe, have deliberately denied the Vice President's grandson one of the most basic human rights of all: the right to a Daddy and a Mommy.

I say shame on the White House, shame on the President and shame on the Vice President for allowing such a caption to be "officially" added onto the White House website and such a beautiful photo of two happy grandparents and their new grandchild.

I guess we can tragically and officially say both the White House and Bush Administration have officially recognized the sinful sexual unions of homosexuals, as well as recognized and embraced the tragedy of the social experiment of homosexual parenting.
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Feds investigating GOP Senator from Alaska



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My former boss :-)

Guess who?

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Another topical political comedy video



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From my buddy Andy Cobb and his troupe of friends in LA. It's really good. Not going to tell you what it's about, as that would spoil the surprise.

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Your TV viewing habits



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Some more data from our blog reader survey. Here are your favorite TV shows, in order, along with the percentage of you who "regularly watch" each show. You can check out a more detailed chart here.

Percent of you who "regularly watch" the following shows:
Daily Show - 56%
Keith Olbermann - 44%
Colbert Report - 44%
Bill Maher - 28%
Bill Moyers - 27%
Frontline - 23%
60 Minutes - 22%
Meet the Press - 19%
PBS Newshour - 18%
NOVA - 18%
BBC World News - 17%
C-Span - 17%
Hardball (Tweety) - 17%
CNN Headline News - 14%
SNL - 14%
CNN Situation Room - 13%
Stephanopoulos - 12%
NBC Nightly News - 11%
Anderson Cooper - 11%
David Letterman - 11%
Lou Dobbs - 10%
McLaughlin Group - 10%

% who watch the comedy shows:
Daily Show - 56%
Colbert Report - 44%
Bill Maher - 28%
SNL - 14%
Letterman - 11%
Jay Leno - 5%
Conan - 4%
Kimmel - 1%

% who watch the Nightly News
PBS Newshour - 18%
BBC World News - 17%
NBC - 11%
ABC - 7%
CBS - 4%

% who watch the Sunday Morning Shows
NBC Meet the Press (Timmeh) - 19%
ABC This Week (Stephanopoulos) - 12%
CBS Face the Nation - 10%
CBS Sunday Morning - 7%

% of you who watch the fake news
Scarborough - 7.1%
Tucker Carlson - 2.5%
O'Reilly - 1.4%
Hannity & Colmes - 0.8%
Shepard Smith - 0.5%
Glenn Beck - 0.4% Read the rest of this post...

Lieberman in Iraq sees "progress," says so-called surge "would start to break the insurgency"



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What a coincidence. Two years after Cheney said the insurgency was in its last throes, Joe Lieberman made essentially the same prediction.

CNN reports that Lieberman is on an unannounced "surprise" visit to Baghdad. Paula Hancocks followed Lieberman around. She talked to Lieberman and reported, "He said he was happy with the progress. He was devastated by the fact that May was turning in to the deadliest month since November 2004. But he said he did believe that this surge eventually would pay off and it would start to break the insurgency."

Meanwhile, in the real world, the evidence is to the contrary:
U.S. officials have warned that the strategy of putting more American troops on the streets and in small combat outposts, part of a security plan launched in February, would lead to higher U.S. casualties. But Tuesday's carnage suggested that the effort had not created a safer security environment.

Also, the complex operations launched against U.S. and allied forces Monday and Tuesday demonstrated that the insurgency here also is adopting more sophisticated tactics and weapons.
But Joe Lieberman sees "progress." Check out his rosy assessment in this video of him in full battle gear - priceless:
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Wednesday Morning Open Thread



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So, on this day in history, May 30, 2005, two years ago, Dick Cheney told us the Iraq insurgency was in its "last throes." Every single thing Cheney has said about Iraq has either been a flat out lie or just plain wrong. This quote from two years ago shows just how out of touch he's been all along:
I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time. But I think the level of activity that we see today, from a military standpoint, I think will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.
Now, if you will, things being as they are, Dick Cheney doesn't have to take any responsibility for his lies. He and Bush just send more soldiers to die in Iraq.

So, with that, start threading. Read the rest of this post...

Bush requesting additional billions to fund abstinence programs



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Spending billions for medicine, nurses and doctors makes sense and should be fully supported and globally, the PEPFAR program is great. Where Congress needs to draw the line is Bush's continuing funding for abstinence programs. HIV rates in Africa are in excess of 24 million people, with some countries in Southern Africa experiencing rates of 20%-30% of the population. Education is obviously important and stressing safe sex is critical but much of the funds for education are for funding the favorite abstinence programs of the US religious right.

The issue today is finding enough medicine to address those in need as well as finding doctors and nurses who can tend to the needs of very sick people. Shortages of medical care workers in these heavily impacted countries are all too common, the end result being overwhelmed staff and people dying unnecessarily. The initial results of the abstinence programs have shown no results whatsoever, with even Uganda (the original case study) showing a resurgence in HIV.

Congress really needs to stand up to Bush and his failing religious experiments that are taking money away from saving people. Let the religious right fund their theories on their own dollar but let's put American tax dollars to work helping people with science, medicine and medical staff. Read the rest of this post...

21,000 British mercenaries working in Iraq



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That is three times the number of UK troops currently in Iraq. Just as the US has lowered the bar for recruiting, low standards are often used when recruiting mercenaries though the so-called security companies are making enormous amounts of money on this outsourcing project and the "security staff" are pulling in $1000 per day, tax free. Running a war with guns-for-hire is a strange way for democracies to win hearts and minds.
Many in the private sector have, however, expressed alarm about the types of recruits attracted by the money. Robin Horsfall, a former SAS trooper and security guard said "former soldiers are working alongside people who have been involved in nightclub security and have very limited experience. It's because a lot of contracts only demand that you can prove you have got six week's security experience".
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