Drinking Liberally®

Time and time again Washington reportes have railed away at those foul-mouthed Liberal bloggers. They seem untroubled by Cheney telling Sen. Pat Leahey to go f**k himself on the floor of the Senate or Bu$h repeatedly using the s.**t bomb while talking to Prime Minister Tony Blair. Now we have some more "colorful" launguage Bu$h used when speaking with PM Sharon. From Ha'aretz magazine via Crooks and liars:

Speaking of George Bush, with whom Sharon developed a very close relationship, Uri Dan recalls that Sharon's delicacy made him reluctant to repeat what the president had told him when they discussed Osama bin Laden. Finally he relented. And here is what the leader of the Western world, valiant warrior in the battle of cultures, promised to do to bin Laden if he caught him: "I will screw him in the ass!"

Posted by vicki at 05:15 PM

This article by Pulitzer Prize winning Dana Priest and Ann Hull left me shaking with anger. Due to massive overcrowding and understaffing, the horrificly injured soldiers and Marines are enduring brutal living conditions at some of the facilities on the grounds of Walter Reed Hospital, 5 miles from the WH. This is one more consequence of the botched Iraq invasion. Read it and shudder.

Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss. But the old lodge, just outside the gates of the hospital and five miles up the road from the White House, has housed hundreds of maimed soldiers recuperating from injuries suffered in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bu$h has made it known that he sleeps quite well at night.

Posted by vicki at 02:33 PM

Joe Conason was dead on with the whole "Whitewater" non issue that lead to the ridiculous impeachment of President Clinton. He is right again in his assesment of the horror of the Bu$h administration. Have a read here and appreciate his logic.

To date, however, we do not know the full dimensions of the scandals behind Iraq and Katrina, because the Republican leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives abdicated the traditional congressional duties of oversight and investigation. It is due to their dereliction that neither the president nor any of his associates have seemed even mildly chastened in the wake of catastrophe. With a single party monopolizing power yet evading responsibility, there was nobody with the constitutional power to hold the White House accountable.

Bolstered by political impunity, especially in a time of war, perhaps any group of politicians would be tempted to abuse power. But this party and these politicians, unchecked by normal democratic constraints, proved to be particularly dangerous. [my bold] The name for what is wrong with them -- the threat embedded within the Bush administration, the Republican congressional leadership, and the current leaders of the Republican Party -- is authoritarianism.

The most obvious symptoms can be observed in the regime's style, which features an almost casual contempt for democratic and lawful norms; an expanding appetite for executive control at the expense of constitutional balances; a reckless impulse to corrupt national institutions with partisan ideology; and an ugly tendency to smear dissent as disloyalty. The most troubling effects are matters of substance, including the suspension of traditional legal rights for certain citizens; the imposition of secrecy and the inhibition of the free flow of information; the extension of domestic spying without legal sanction or warrant; the promotion of torture and other barbaric practices, in defiance of American and international law; and the collusion of government and party with corporate interests and religious fundamentalists.

Indeed.

Posted by vicki at 10:47 PM

I had the pleasure of talking with Congressman Yarmuth yesterday about his votes in Congress and expressed my appreciation for the long overdue oversight of the Executive branch's abuses of power and the corruption of the 109th Congress. I invited John to drop by the BBC and pay DL a visit and he assured me he looked forward to doing so. Here is a snip of his speech on the House floor regarding his opposition to Bu$h's obscene *surge* plan.

Mr. Speaker, four years ago I was just like most other Americans, trying to evaluate the President's plan to invade Iraq. Unlike most Americans, I was writing a newspaper column and was expected to take a public position on such a critical national policy.

But like most Americans, I was unburdened by the classified and faulty intelligence provided to members of Congress. I concluded, and wrote, that the claims made to justify the American invasion of Iraq were baseless - that there were no weapons of mass destruction; that Iraq posed no immediate threat to the United States; that Saddam Hussein was not in any way connected to the 9/11 attacks; and finally that Iraq was not a safe harbor for al Qaeda.

I also concluded, and wrote, that we were rushing into Iraq with no idea of what we would do after the inevitable overthrow of the Iraqi regime; and also that we had no plan for getting out.

Two months later, when the President stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier and pronounced "Mission Accomplished," I predicted that the scene would end up in Democratic campaign commercials.

John was right about everything Finally, we have a member of Congress whose judgement is sound. Read the rest of the speech here published in The Bridge

Posted by vicki at 11:21 AM

Yet again, former Lt. Governor Steve Henry is having problems with the "books." He ran into trouble in his medical practice for funny buisness on the books by billing for surgeries he did not perform. He blamed office staffers and they blamed him. He settled the matter. Now the problem is campaign contributions. The Lexington Herald Leader reports:

FRANKFORT -- Democrat Steve Henry, who is running for governor, collected more than $170,000 in donations and spent funds last year out of an off-the-books campaign account aimed at laying the groundwork for a possible run for federal office. While so-called "testing the waters" accounts are allowed by federal law for people considering running for Congress or U.S. Senate, Henry's use of that fund has come under scrutiny, especially now that he's opted to run for governor instead. State laws no longer allow for "exploratory committees" for candidates to run for governor. One key state legislator said yesterday that by using such donations for travel and research, Henry "violated at least the spirit of the state election law" once he decided to run for governor.

And how does Mr. Henry answer the charge that these accounts are illegal? He tells the Herald Leader, "I'm not a politician," said Henry, a physician who served as lieutenant governor for eight years and ran for U.S. Senate in 1998. [my bold] "If you don't have a big campaign machine you need to be able to compete.

'Nuf said.

Posted by vicki at 06:53 PM

Calling Ken Star! We have a new investigation for you. This boggles the mind to say the least. Any moment some crack investigative reporter from the US will be all over this. Hahahahahaha. Be sure to click this Wonkette link for more links to this story

The Cuban news service reports that George W. Bush has purchased 98,840 acres in Paraguay, near the Bolivian/Brazilian border. Jenna Bush paid a secret diplomatic visit to Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte and U.S. Ambassador James Cason. There were no press conferences, no public sightings and no official confirmation of her 10-day trip which apparently ended this week. The Paraguayan Senate voted last summer to “grant U.S. troops immunity from national and International Criminal Court (ICC) jurisdiction.” Immediately afterwards, 500 heavily armed U.S. troops arrived with various planes, choppers and land vehicles at Mariscal Estigarribia air base, which happens to be at the northern tip of Paraguay near the Bolivian/Brazilian border. More have reportedly arrived since then [ . . .] The Cuban news service reports that George W. Bush has purchased 98,840 acres in Paraguay, near the Bolivian/Brazilian border. Jenna Bush paid a secret diplomatic visit to Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte and U.S. Ambassador James Cason. There were no press conferences, no public sightings and no official confirmation of her 10-day trip which apparently ended this week. The Paraguayan Senate voted last summer to “grant U.S. troops immunity from national and International Criminal Court (ICC) jurisdiction.” Immediately afterwards, 500 heavily armed U.S. troops arrived with various planes, choppers and land vehicles at Mariscal Estigarribia air base, which happens to be at the northern tip of Paraguay near the Bolivian/Brazilian border. More have reportedly arrived since then..

Posted by vicki at 09:43 AM

During the '04 Republican convention the cops arrested and held peaceful protesters for up to 36 hours without due process and infiltrated various protest groups. Maybe that sort of thuggery will come to an end with this legal ruling. The The Times Reports

In a rebuke of a surveillance practice greatly expanded by the New York Police Department after the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal judge ruled yesterday that the police must stop the routine videotaping of people at public gatherings unless there is an indication that unlawful activity may occur. [ . . . ] In yesterday’s ruling, Judge Haight, of United States District Court in Manhattan, found that by videotaping people who were exercising their right to free speech and breaking no laws, the Police Department had ignored the milder limits he had imposed on it in 2003.

Citing two events in 2005 — a march in Harlem and a demonstration by homeless people in front of the home of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg — the judge said the city had offered scant justification for videotaping the people involved.

“There was no reason to suspect or anticipate that unlawful or terrorist activity might occur,” he wrote, “or that pertinent information about or evidence of such activity might be obtained by filming the earnest faces of those concerned citizens and the signs by which they hoped to convey their message to a public official.”

Shame on Mayor Bloomberg for condoning this practice.

Posted by vicki at 07:33 AM

Once again, our senior Senator, Mitch McConnell is playing games with important legislation. He is not interested in actually governing--he just wants to play games in the Senate and block the Democrats. He and his Republican leadership spent the last 6 years protecting a secretitive and dishonest WH that has little use for the seperation of powers or the Constitution. Now he is willing to block much demanded oversight the Democrats are proposing in order to spare Bu$h from a real "sense of the Senate." What a disgraceful creature. Check out TPM's Election Central for more links

The brinksmanship in Washington is escalating, as it were, over the Senate's coming showdown on escalation. Earlier today, Senator Harry Reid released a statement saying that he was scheduling a vote for Saturday on whether to consider the House anti-escalation resolution, which is far more simple and straightforward than the Warner resolution that Republicans succeeded in scuttling debate on recently.

Now, as we speak, GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is holding a press conference to respond to Reid's challenge. More soon.

Update: Reid says that if his motion to get a Senate vote on the House language is successful, he may cancel the Senate's recess next week, which could shake up the campaign plans of Senators running for President.

One of the links TPM sights is this WaPo article, which is worth a read: here

Posted by vicki at 05:43 PM

This takes the cake for rewarding arrogance and gross incompetence. Check out this Times article and read the whole thing for today's latest outrage

Last June, Douglas J. Feith, a former top Pentagon official involved in planning the Iraq war, was hired by a Defense Department graduate school for military officers and diplomats, with a four-year contract that was to pay him half a million dollars, Pentagon records show.

His duties as a “distinguished professor” at the National Defense University, a 30-year-old institution on the Washington waterfront financed by the Pentagon, included team-teaching a course and producing a report on ways to “organize the United States better for the long war on terrorism,” according to the documents.

The hiring of Mr. Feith, whose role in helping to make the case for the Iraq invasion is still a matter of intense scrutiny a year and a half after he left the Pentagon, had never been announced. [ . . ]

who was secretary of the Army during President Bush’s first term, said, “I find it bizarre that they would pick a guy whose performance has been generally maligned and ask him to teach the subject.” He added that the decision to terminate the contract “shows somebody has some sense over there.”

The way the contract was put out for bid, though, made it difficult for the university to choose anyone other than Mr. Feith.

It was a set-up to enrich Feith at the expence of making a COMPETENT hire--if one was needed in the first place. Truly disgusting and disgraceful. Sadly, it's also the norm for the Worst Administration Ever.

Posted by vicki at 12:54 PM

This sounds like something we could have some fun with!

Some folks recently stumbled upon this website http://www.sixpacksforsoldiers.com/ It’s a super fun way to show our troops we care and let them relax the way we do. Simply upload your photo to the website and these folks will send out beer to some brew needing folks abroad. There haven’t been a lot of posts so far, so DL chapters everywhere can have a big impact. Click “Virtual Toasts” and scroll down to see Leigh W. wearing a DL shirt and toasting our troops. It would be great if folks uploaded photos wearing DL buttons, shirts etc and adding which chapter they’re from. It’s also a fun and easy way to promote your chapter.

Lastly, if you’re meeting on V-day or soon there after, in NYC we’ve decided to bring construction paper hearts to our meeting on Thursday and let people write valentines to their favorite politicians. It’s an easy activity and if you’ve been courting a certain elected official to stop by – it’s also a great invitation.

No politics - just beer.

Simply click here to upload a photo of yourself toasting the troops with a beer (or non-alcoholic alternative, if you prefer). For every "virtual toast" we get, we will deliver one real beer to a soldier

Posted by vicki at 01:07 PM

Hahahahahahaha. This guy is awesome! Check out his rant on the House floor about the *Republic* party

Posted by vicki at 08:37 PM

Here we go again with the phony intel and general hysteria about Iran shipping weapons to Iraqi insurgents. Since Bu$hCo is not to believed about anything, let's see what a real Middle East expert has to say. From Juan Cole's blog:

So the unnamed sources at the Pentagon are reduced to implying that Iran is giving sophisticated bombs to its sworn enemies and the very groups that are killing its Shiite Iraqi allies every day. Get real!

Moreover, there is no evidence of Iranian intentions to kill US troops. If Iran was giving EFPs to anyone, it was to the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and its Badr Corps paramilitary, for future use. SCIRI is the main US ally in Iraq aside from the Kurds. I don't know of US troops killed by Badr, certainly not any time recently.

It is far more likely that corrupt arms merchants are selling and smuggling these things than that there is direct government- to- militia transfer. It is possible that small Badr Corps stockpiles were shared or sold. That wouldn't have been Iran's fault.

Update: From VOA News (Australia) via TPM their link to it here
General Pace said he was not aware of the Baghdad briefing, and that he could not, from his own knowledge, repeat the assertion made there that the elite Quds brigade of Iran's Republican Guard force is providing bomb-making kits to Iraqi Shiite insurgents.

"We know that the explosively formed projectiles are manufactured in Iran. What I would not say is that the Iranian government, per se [specifically], knows about this," he said. "It is clear that Iranians are involved, and it's clear that materials from Iran are involved, but I would not say by what I know that the Iranian government clearly knows or is complicit."

Posted by vicki at 11:49 AM

Hoo, boy. Andrew farkin' Sullivan is impressed by Barak Obama. Check it out

The New Party of Lincoln?

10 Feb 2007 03:09 pm

As the Republicans base themselves in the heartland of Dixie, and exploit the current enclaves of cynical division and ugly bigotry, Obama coopts the greatest Republican president:

"The life of a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer tells us that a different future is possible. He tells us that there is power in words. He tells us that there is power in conviction. That beneath all the differences of race and region, faith and station, we are one people. He tells us that there is power in hope."

Yes there is. And, yes, Obama is helping.

Posted by vicki at 11:44 PM

Why is this kind of thing tollerated by major newspapers? Where are the editors? This seems to be part of the false notion that "both sides are equally corrupt." NO. No they are not. From TPMMUCKRAKER

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) "collected a $1.1 million windfall on a Las Vegas land sale even though he hadn't personally owned the property for three years," the AP reports.

Except that's wrong. Reid made a $700,000 profit on the sale, not $1.1 million. Also, the story, by the AP’s John Solomon, makes it sound as if Reid got money for land he didn't own. But that's not the case.

It’s not the first time that Solomon has published a misleading story about Reid. This is the third such story by Solomon over the past six months. Each time, Solomon has hit Reid for taking actions which might create the appearance of ethical impropriety. But because Solomon writes for the most powerful news organization in the land, these very gray-shaded stories pack a wallop. It doesn’t help that on numerous occasions, he has missed or distorted key details – missteps that help blow up his stories.

This story is no different. It purports to show that Reid collected $1.1 million on the sale of land he didn’t own.
Yet, as Solomon obliquely acknowledges, Reid, who had bought the land along with a friend in 1998, transferred his ownership in the land to a limited liability company in 2001. The company, which was composed solely of this land owned by Reid and his friend, in turn sold the land in 2004.

It's rumored that Reid is preparing a lible suit. Good luck.

Posted by vicki at 11:16 PM

At long last the WH's phony *intel* is exposed as the fraud all careful readers of the news (burried in nearly all newspapers) knew it to be. The Republicans on the Intelligence Committee knew this all along as well and chose to cover for the WH while sending our military off to die in an invasion launched under false pretenses. From the WaPo

By Walter Pincus and R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, February 9, 2007; Page A01

Intelligence provided by former undersecretary of defense Douglas J. Feith to buttress the White House case for invading Iraq included "reporting of dubious quality or reliability" that supported the political views of senior administration officials rather than the conclusions of the intelligence community, according to a report by the Pentagon's inspector general.

Feith's office "was predisposed to finding a significant relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda," according to portions of the report, released yesterday by Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.). The inspector general described Feith's activities as "an alternative intelligence assessment process."
[. . .]
"The bottom line is that intelligence relating to the Iraq-al-Qaeda relationship was manipulated by high-ranking officials in the Department of Defense to support the administration's decision to invade Iraq," Levin said yesterday. "The inspector general's report is a devastating condemnation of inappropriate activities in the DOD policy office that helped take this nation to war."

Posted by vicki at 12:55 PM

It's long past time a serious study of the breakdown of our news media got underway by OUTSIDERS. Read and appreciate this excellent proposal.

By Gilbert Cranberg gilcranberg@yahoo.com

As the war in Iraq nears its fourth anniversary, and with no end in sight, Americans are owed explanations. The Senate Intelligence Committee has promised a report on whether the Bush administration misrepresented intelligence to justify the war against Iraq. An explanation is due also for how the U.S. press helped pave the way for war. An independent and thorough inquiry of pre-war press coverage would be a public service. Not least of the beneficiaries would be the press itself, which could be helped to understand its behavior and avoid a replay.

Better a study by outsiders than by insiders. Besides, journalism groups show no appetite for self-examination. Nor would a study by the press about the press have credibility. Now and then a news organization has published a mea culpa about its Iraq coverage, but isolated admissions of error are no substitute for comprehensive study.

The fundamental question: Why did the press as a whole fail to question sufficiently the administration’s case for war?

More specifically:

Q. Why did the Knight Ridder Washington Bureau’s “against-the grain reporting” during the build-up to war receive such “disappointing play,” in the words of its former bureau chief?

Q. Why did the press generally fail to pay more attention to the bureau’s ground-breaking coverage?

Q. Why, on the eve of war, did the Washington Post’s executive editor reject a story by Walter Pincus, its experienced and knowledgeable national security reporter, that questioned administration claims of hidden Iraqi weapons and why, when the editor reconsidered, the story ran on Page 17?

continue reading here

Posted by vicki at 03:48 PM

If you missed Harold kick ass on Wave 3 "Hot Button" last night you can see it here Just click and view

Posted by vicki at 03:42 PM

Take This Quiz And Find Out! Here's a snip. High-larious!

After years of rising concern about left-wing anti-Semitism, the New York Times reported this week about a study for the American Jewish Committee. Written by professor Alvin Rosenfeld of Indiana University, the study describes the spread of a virulent anti-Zionism in many quarters on the left that has helped legitimate anti-Semitism. Some people have seized on the study to argue that these extreme anti-Zionists are really anti-Jewish bigots. Critics reply that criticizing Israel, even harshly, doesn't prove animus toward the Hebrew people.

So, how can you tell if you're a good liberal who simply thinks the West Bank settlements are bad policy—or a closet Judeophobe whose progressive views mask a serious attitude problem? Take this quiz and see.

1. Who deserves the most blame for the Iraq war?

a) George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld
b) Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and Bill Kristol
c) Blame? Don't you support the troops?

2. Which group exerts too much influence on America's Mideast policy?

a) Conservative jingoes
b) Not the Jews per se but a "pro-Israel lobby" composed mainly of wealthy New York financiers (who may well all attend the same shul)
c) Arabists at the State Department

Click here for more fun and games

Posted by vicki at 06:59 PM

This nut stuff with Fux News is sickening. They think their "witty banter" is on the order of The Daily Show. I'm sorry to report, they are letting their inner bigots out and it ain't funny. Think Progress offers this transcript from the pilot

Red Eye is “one of two recent initiatives that appear to be attempts to broaden the definition of a news channel.” The other is “The Half-Hour News Hour,” a right-leaning version of the Daily Show
Transcript:

HOST 1: Sen. Joe Biden, who is now, I think, my favorite person in the world, he’s declared his run for the presidency, but at the same time had some amazing words, which I have here on this card, for Barack Obama, describing him as the first mainstream African-American who is articulate, bright, and clean.

HOST 2: Oh. Well, I think Oprah’s clean.

HOST 1: Yeah, but no, running for president. Oprah’s not running for president. But Jesse Jackson is clean.

HOST 3: She does douche. (Laughter) I was told I was allowed to say the D-word!

HOST: Alright.

HOST 3: You will continue to roll, my friend.

HOST 1: Ok, the thing about what Joe Biden says is, isn’t he saying what every liberal is thinking? That Obama is acceptable because he’s basically like Lionel Jefferson, and he’s not threatening — that’s the son.

HOST 4: Is he the one who sang “All Night Long”?

HOST 1: No, no, that was Lionel Richie, also a non-threatening black man. Liberals have this secret racism about blacks. They’ve got to be light-skinned in order to be acceptable.

Posted by vicki at 11:20 PM

Hoo, boy. Despite all the talking heads telling us Hillary is the top choice among Dems for president, she is not loved by all Liberals. I caught this on Huffington post.

Catcalls Drowned Out Hillary Fans At DNC Meeting

The Huffington Post | Melinda Henneberger | Posted February 4, 2007 05:24 PM

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton got very different receptions from the crowd at the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting, where all of the party's presidential candidates spoke.

Obama and the crowd exchanged "I love you"s and other endearments as he took the stage. And through the whole of his speech, the audience chanted, "You can do it!"

Clinton's welcome was not just less enthusiastic, but hostile -- and though there seemed to be almost as many Clinton placards as there were people in the room, catcalls drowned out any roars of approval from her cheering section as she began to speak. In reaction to a claim that she had been a tough critic of the war, someone in the crowd shouted, "NOT!'' Code Pink protesters repeatedly interrupted her, yelling, "Stop funding war!'' and one Army vet kept calling, "How about bringing them home, Hillary?'' Definitely, the applause at the end of her address was much louder than when she'd started - which, as her campaign sees it, is how all of America will react once they get to know her. Unless, you know, they already did that.

Posted by vicki at 04:37 PM

How's this for the most insincere, Orwellian presentation by Bu$h ever? Think about the cut and run Dems, Saddam loving, terrorist coddling, America last Democrats Bu$h and Co. have been pimping for the last 6 years. Who are you gonna believe--Bush or your own lying ears? What a clowning little man.

— In a rare appearance before an audience of Democrats, President Bush said Saturday that he did not question the patriotism of those who disagreed with his Iraq strategy and asked lawmakers not to let dissension over the war entirely erode their trust in him.

“I welcome debate in a time of war, and I hope you know that,” Mr. Bush said. “Nor do I consider a belief that if you don’t happen to agree with me, you don’t share the same sense of patriotism I do. You can get that thought out of your mind if that’s what some believe.”

Hahahahahahaha. What a joker. Only the dumbest man in America would find that convincing. A pie should have been thrown in the direction of his face.

Posted by vicki at 09:43 PM

You really have to read the whole article to understand the depth of corruption, screwing of taxpayers and selling out public good for the enrichment of GOP contributors. It is utterly sickening. This President and the GOP Congress of old slapped a for sale sign on government and we picked up the tab. Read it and weep

Without a public debate or formal policy decision, contractors have become a virtual fourth branch of government. On the rise for decades, spending on federal contracts has soared during the Bush administration, to about $400 billion last year from $207 billion in 2000, fueled by the war in Iraq, domestic security and Hurricane Katrina, but also by a philosophy that encourages outsourcing almost everything government does.

Contractors still build ships and satellites, but they also collect income taxes and work up agency budgets, fly pilotless spy aircraft and take the minutes at policy meetings on the war. They sit next to federal employees at nearly every agency; far more people work under contracts than are directly employed by the government. Even the government’s online database for tracking contracts, the Federal Procurement Data System, has been outsourced (and is famously difficult to use).

The contracting explosion raises questions about propriety, cost and accountability that have long troubled watchdog groups and are coming under scrutiny from the Democratic majority in Congress. While flagrant cases of fraud and waste make headlines, concerns go beyond outright wrongdoing.

Dems have tried for 2 years to investigate this waste, fraud and abuse. At Last, Rep. Henry Waxman will get his investigation.

Posted by vicki at 09:07 PM

Thanks to Carol for Judy's alert from LPAC. Be sure to set Tivo or the VCR to catch Harold on Tee Vee

Harold Trainer taped a comment about the Iraq War for WAVE-TV Hotbutton, which will be aired Monday Feb. 5th, during the 5:30 WAVE-TV news program and again at the end of the 7:00pm show. It will be replayed on Tuesday morning Feb. 6th, during the WAVE sunrise news, and during the noon news. Please contact WAVE-TV manager Steve Langford with your comment about Harold's statement, slangford@wave3tv.com.

3. On Sunday Feb. 11, 2:00pm, at Central Presbyterian, 4th & Kentucky, there will a special showing of "Sir, No Sir," a documentary about military members who have refused to serve in Iraq. A discussion session will follow.

Posted by vicki at 08:58 PM

Rev. Todd delivers on Civil Rights once again. Rock on, buddy!

Today, especially, the Civil Rights movement has been extended to include the Gay community, as it struggles for fairness and equal rights. And, as in the days of old, many people of faith are working toward Fairness. But why do we need Faith and Fairness? Many today would say the two are incompatible, that religion and gay rights are like oil and water, they just don’t mix. Unfortunately, this isn’t true only of those religious bigots who use their faith as an excuse for hating, and harming, and excluding others, but also, and sadly, it is true of many gays too. This is so, in many cases, because those in the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community have been so ostracized by religious folk, that they have bought into the lie that says they are unworthy of Divine love and can’t possibly be part of a religious community because of their unholy lifestyle.

A couple of years ago, for example, I was invited to speak about the “Bible and Homosexuality” during Hanover College’s Pride Week. Afterward, I received the following email from a young gay student named Stephen; “I just wanted to send my most sincere thanks to you for tonight's talk. First of all it was just what this campus needed to hear. It was a truly different and important voice that many students on this campus have never heard and may never hear again… Secondly, I wanted you to know how much I was personally touched by your message. I have been pretty turned off by religion in general in the last few years, for perhaps obvious reasons. In our country there is such a split when it comes to being gay and religious. Many times I feel you are either, openly gay and not religious at all, or you are a closest gay and very religious. I don't really like either option and tonight I saw some new flickers of hope for me and religion. I have never experienced a Unitarian Church but I really connected with so much of what you said tonight and it got me thinking about all things. I loved your respect and use of other religions. Other religions have always interested me and I have never seen the point of shutting them out. Plus, your thoughts on homosexuality in the Bible were fresh and insightful. So I wanted you to know you greatly touched me in sharing your thoughts and I am going to continue to ponder these great notions and do more research on your church.”

God bless the child.

Posted by vicki at 10:10 PM

Let's face it, politicians in KY play into the bigotry of ignorant Kentuckians when it comes to issues of gay, lesbian and trans -gendered individuals. Hell, they win elections by gay baiting/bashing their opponents. This is a sorry and unacceptable state of affairs. Every citizen in this country deserves the same and equal rights afforded by the Constitution. No exceptions. None.

Join In A Day Of Action for a Fair Kentucky

Mark your calendar for Thursday, February 22, Capitol Complex, Frankfort
8:00 a.m. Lobbying, 1:00 p.m. Rally

Rev. Todd and Dear Leader Vicki welcome all DLers to join us on this important road trip. Be there and be fair.

P.S. Rev. Todd was fired from his job for preaching Fairness from his pulpit. What a world.

Visit the KY Fairness Alliance website here

Posted by vicki at 09:18 PM

It's always scary to come upon an image of the odious Mitch McConnell, but Jim at the Hillbilly Report has this hilarious clip on Youtube. Click Here

Posted by vicki at 11:59 AM

Crikey! Bu$h's urge to surge is even more ridiculous than I thought. The idiot "military experts" hired by CNN to *educate us on the art of WAR*, (3 retired generals and all diehard supporters of this disasterous invasion) who were wrong about EVERYTHING, every step of the way are still pretending the Iraqi police and military are "getting up to speed!" Hahahahahaha. For a more realistic take, check out TPMMuckraker

To put this in the realm of the current debate, President Bush's "surge" is designed to give political breathing room to events that the intelligence community formally judges as unrealistic:

...even if violence is diminished, given the current winner-take-all attitude and sectarian animosities infecting the political scene, Iraqi leaders will be hard pressed to achieve sustained political reconciliation in the time frame of this Estimate.
About Iran. This must have been one of the most controversial elements of the estimate: Iraq's neighbors are "not likely to be a major driver of violence or the prospects for stability because of the self-sustaining character of Iraq's internal sectarian dynamics." There's the expected qualifications that Iran and Syria are up to no good, but this is the major point. In other words, no matter how much Bush wants to lay the blame for the disintegration of Iraq on the meddlesome interference of Iran and Syria, the U.S.-sponsored political process itself -- indeed, the new, U.S.-midwifed Iraqi political order -- itself sows the seeds for the country's destruction. Apparently Bush could attack Iran to his heart's content, and Iraq would still remain inflamed.

Oh, and one final thought: this is just what's unclassified. If past NIEs are any prologue, what remains classified is much, much grimmer than what we see here. More likely than not, this is the most optimistic presentation of the NIE possible. Happy Friday.

Posted by vicki at 11:31 AM

Molly Ivins was a national TREASURE and will be sorely missed. Here is nice article from Op-Ed News

It's hard to accept that Molly Ivins is dead.

It's harder to accept that we won't be reading her columns anymore, and savoring that one-of-kind mix of Texas wit, undiluted liberalism and plain old common sense.

And it breaks my heart to know at a time when her passion and her humor is needed more than ever, she's not with us.

Former Boston Phoenix media critic Dan Kennedy called Ivins, along with Nat Hentoff, the best columnists to have never won a Pulitzer.

I don't disagree. She was a finalist three times and deserved to win every time.

"If Mark Twain had a female counterpart on today's political and journalistic scene, it is Molly Ivins," wrote Harvey Wasserman earlier this week.

Harvey had that right. Molly could elegantly turn a phrase that could deflate any dim-witted political figure before he ever knew what hit him.

"There are two kinds of humor," she once told People magazine. One "makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity." The other "holds people up to public contempt and ridicule. That's what I do."

While she could be a wicked satirist, she said that "I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel - it's vulgar."

My heart goes out to her family, who must be devastated. Only the good die young.

Update: Krugman dug up this Ivins gem she wrote in 2003:

Jan. 16, 2003: “I assume we can defeat Hussein without great cost to our side (God forgive me if that is hubris). The problem is what happens after we win. The country is 20 percent Kurd, 20 percent Sunni and 60 percent Shiite. Can you say, ‘Horrible three-way civil war?’ ”
She always saw through the bullshit.

Posted by vicki at 05:18 PM