Chris Matthews is not exactly a stellar political pundit, but he handled the unhinged wingnut radio yacker, Kevin James, exactly right. He asked, "why are you screaming?" Matthews repeatedly asked if James even knew what Neville Chamberlain did to appease Hitler (hint, he He signed the Munich Agreement, conceding half of Czechoslovakia to the Nazi regime) and all James could do was scream absurdities about Hitler, Obama and 9/11. Matthews gave the wingnut the proper send off by telling him he didn't know what the hell he was talking about. That pretty much sums up the entire Republican party. Thanks to June for the link.

From Hank, of course:

Your government is going to send most folks a 'tax rebate.' If we spend it at Wal-Mart, the money will go to China .
If we spend it on gasoline, the money will go to the Arabs. If we purchase a computer it will go to India .
If we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico.If we purchase a good car, it will go to Japan.
If we purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan … and none of it will help the American economy.The only way to keep the money here at home is to spend it on prostitutes, weed, beer, bourbon and tattoos since these are the only products still produced in the USA. Thank you for your help and God Bless America (and screw everyone else!)Prezidunce George W. Bush PS - Don't furget to vote Repuglicun

Bu$h chose Israel, of all places, to launch a lying smear campaign against Barack Obama without actually having used his name. We all heard the dog whistle, however. Throwing Hitler's name around in a Jewish state was a particularly vile tactic.

JERUSALEM (CNN) – President Bush launched a sharp but veiled attack Thursday on Sen. Barack Obama and other Democrats, suggesting they favor "appeasement" of terrorists in the same way some Western leaders appeased Hitler in the run-up to World War II.
The president did not name Obama or any other Democrat, but White House aides privately acknowledged the remarks were aimed at the presidential candidate and others in his party. Former President Jimmy Carter has called for talks with Hamas.
"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Bush said at Israel's 60th anniversary celebration in Jerusalem.
"We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said in remarks to Israel's parliament, the Knesset. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."
The remarks seemed to be a not-so-subtle attempt to continue to raise doubts about Obama with Jewish Americans. Those doubts were earlier stoked by Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee in the 2008 presidential election, when he recently charged that Obama is the favored candidate of the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas, which the U.S. government has listed as a terrorist group.
Obama last week called the Hamas allegation a "smear" and lashed out Thursday at Bush's speech in Israel.

A palpable sense of doom has set in among Republican rank and file as the party begins to lick its wounds from last night's defeat in a special Mississippi congressional election. The loss, which was the GOP's third straight in what had been reliably Republican districts, spurned talks of even greater, historical setbacks in the fall.
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"This is 1994 all over again," Frank Luntz, a famed Republican communications consultant, told The Huffington Post. "I was there. I saw it firsthand. The Republicans of 2008 are behaving exactly like the Democrats of '94 and making exactly the same mistakes. It's pathetic."
*
Indeed, even the leadership team responsible for shepherding the GOP's election efforts acknowledged that the party's political vital signs were depressing. Rep. Tom Cole, who heads the National Republican Congressional Committee, didn't bother to try and put a good spin on the loss in Mississippi -- where Democrat Travis Childers won with an eight percent margin in a district that Bush carried by 25 percent in 2004.
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"We are disappointed in tonight's election results. Though the NRCC, RNC and Mississippi Republicans made a major effort to retain this seat, we came up short," Cole said in a statement. "I encourage all Republican candidates, whether incumbents or challengers, to take stock of their campaigns and position themselves for challenging campaigns this fall by building the financial resources and grassroots networks that offer them the opportunity and ability to communicate, energize and turn out voters this election."

In a live debate on KET, their only debate before the May 20 primary, they talked of the economy, Iraq, gas prices and other issues.
The best-known and best-funded candidates, Louisville businessmen Bruce Lunsford and Greg Fischer, sought to distinguish themselves from each other and sparred several times during the 90-minute session.
Lunsford said he wants to help change the direction of government, citing the Iraq war, high prices for gas and food, and the mortgage foreclosure crisis.
"Twenty-four years of Mitch McConnell is enough," said Lunsford, 60, who served in state government in the 1980s and has twice run unsuccessfully for governor.
But Fischer, 50, a political neophyte, said he's best prepared to offer change, including on issues such as economic well-being and ending U.S. involvement in Iraq.
"I'm not a politician but I've always been a public servant," said Fischer, an entrepreneur who helped turn around a bankrupt ice and beverage company.
The sharpest exchange occurred between Lunsford and Fischer over issues including Fischer's television ad attacking Lunsford's stewardship of Vencor, a nursing home company that went into bankruptcy in 1999 and re-emerged as Kindred Healthcare and Ventas Inc. after he left.
Some Democrats criticized the ad as divisive, but Fischer was unapologetic.
He said Lunsford "is running as if he doesn't have a past he wants to discuss."
Lunsford also found himself defending his startling decision in 2003 to drop out of the Democratic gubernatorial primary and endorse Republican Ernie Fletcher.
"I have admitted that was a mistake," Lunsford said.
Lunsford, who said he has donated heavily to Democratic causes, criticized Fischer for much smaller contributions to the party.
Fischer retorted that Lunsford also has given to Republicans in the past, including McConnell.
None of the seven candidates has ever held elected office, but all maintained they would be better than McConnell, the Senate minority leader.
"He has become known as the great obstructer," said Louisville physician Mike Cassaro, 52, who said he would work to improve the well-being of people in a state with high poverty and lack of access to health care.

Forgive me for bragging, I'm just really proud of my son. He won first place at Bennington's music fest and will now perform with these other Luminaries. Blake is the one in bold at the end.

Of Montreal. Rainer Maria. Kimya Dawson. Bennington College’s Sunfest has long been reputed for being ahead of the curve when it comes to featuring musical acts just before they explode into notoriety. The College’s annual music festival will begin at 12:00 pm on Saturday, May 17, 2008. This year’s highly-anticipated bill features nine bands and is headlined by the experimental rock-duo, The Fiery Furnaces. All bands will play in the Student Center, and the College streets will be lined with food, vendors, and games. Sunfest is open to the public, and admission is $15.
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The Fiery Furnaces
Headlining this year’s Sunfest, sibling-duo The Fiery Furnaces are celebrated for their oscillating music that is “gloriously, kaleidoscopically shape-shifting” (New York Magazine). Famous for making fascinating and idiosyncratic music, the band’s innovative style has earned them a spot on NPR’s list of Best Albums of 2007 for their most recent album Widow City.
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Bishop Allen
As addictive as they are playful (Rolling Stone), Bishop Allen plays music that is vivid and vibrant. Their songs strike a beautiful balance: optimistic pop with a bittersweet edge (“uplifting in their melodic and sweet construction and but wrapped in a contrasting unhappiness”) and appealing to everyone at every time (Michael Frauenhofer, PopMatters). The band is currently touring their new album, The Broken String—hailed as both prolific and polished by Spin Magazine (September, 2007).
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The Boggs
Jason Friedman comes together with a shifting cast of musicians—from Enon’s Matt Schulz to Au Revoir Simone’s Heather D’Angelo—and constant, changing collaboration to make the music of The Boggs. With energy and emphasis on rhythm—“a combustible concoction of hand-claps, knee-slaps, Bo Diddley beats, shuffling feet, clinking cowbells, and chain-gang chants” (Pitchfork, 2007), The Boggs straddle the lines between blues, folk and rock ‘n roll, reflecting the roots of musical evolution.
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The Postelles (Sunfest’s Band to Watch!)
The Postelles deliver powerful, contagious pop rock with a retro wash. Rapidly gathering attention across the country from outlets like BBC Radio and Spin Magazine, the band’s dangerously upbeat tunes are as tightly-constructed as they are captivating.
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DJ Holva
First-place winner of Battle of the Bands 2008, DJ Holva (Blake Shaw ’11) earned his spot on the Sunfest bill with powerful beats and intricate phrase-to-phrase mixing. With an interest in minimal tech-house, Shaw blends his studies in electronic music with dramatic and danceable DJ sets.

Mike Cassaro will be at Drinking Liberally at the BBC Thursday, May 15 some time after 7:00 Come out to DL and meet him and ask him questions about his policies and how he will Ditch Mitch. Here is a snip from the profile the C-J ran about him in the Sunday paper.

Mike Cassaro learned the alphabet at the age of 3 in a single afternoon. He holds degrees in law and engineering, and he's a physician who has pioneered minimally invasive surgical procedures. But the Prospect resident faces long odds as a candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. He has never run for elected office, has received no major endorsements and his campaign recently had less than $10,000 on hand, compared with hundreds of thousands of dollars for Democrat opponents such as Greg Fischer and Bruce Lunsford. But Cassaro, 52, doesn't seem overly concerned. He smiles often, relies on a dry sense of humor, and says he's been working 50 hours a week on his campaign in addition to his full-time job as a physician. "I didn't get in this race to peck away at anybody," he said in a recent interview, sitting at the kitchen table of his parents' home on Blankenbaker Lane. "I bring more depth and breadth than all of the other candidates combined."

This Washington Post article leaves no doubt about what is driving with "white, working class" voters in some states.

For all the hope and excitement Obama's candidacy is generating, some of his field workers, phone-bank volunteers and campaign surrogates are encountering a raw racism and hostility that have gone largely unnoticed -- and unreported -- this election season. Doors have been slammed in their faces. They've been called racially derogatory names (including the white volunteers). And they've endured malicious rants and ugly stereotyping from people who can't fathom that the senator from Illinois could become the first African American president.
The contrast between the large, adoring crowds Obama draws at public events and the gritty street-level work to win votes is stark. The candidate is largely insulated from the mean-spiritedness that some of his foot soldiers deal with away from the media spotlight.
Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, was on phone-bank duty one night during the Pennsylvania primary campaign. One night was all she could take: "It wasn't pretty." She made 60 calls to prospective voters in Susquehanna County, her home county, which is 98 percent white. The responses were dispiriting. One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn't possibly vote for Obama and concluded: "Hang that darky from a tree!" [my bold]
Documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy, the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, said she, too, came across "a lot of racism" when campaigning for Obama in Pennsylvania. One Pittsburgh union organizer told her he would not vote for Obama because he is black, and a white voter, she said, offered this frank reason for not backing Obama: "White people look out for white people, and black people look out for black people."

Hahahahahaha. Are scary Mitt and Roy Blunt on crack? Think Progress indicates that they've "lost their bearings."

On CNN’s Late Edition today, former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) claimed that the argument that John McCain would, in effect, be a third Bush term “isn’t going to stick”:
BLITZER: [Obama] says he welcomes a debate with John McCain on the issue of the economy, taxes, spending policy because John McCain would simply be more George W. Bush. … Does John McCain want to continue what Obama called the failed policies of the Bush administration?
ROMNEY: Well I think you’re going to hear that time and again, Wolf, throughout the campaign season. And I just don’t think it’s going to stick.
But earlier on the same program, a leading McCain surrogate — Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) — conceded that McCain is indeed promising a third Bush term on the economy:
BLITZER: So it would be in effect a third Bush term when it came to pro-growth tax policies?
BLUNT: It would be. I think it would be. And I think that’s a good thing.

For quite some time, U.S. troops have supported repealing the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy. A December 2006 poll of servicemembers who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan found 73 percent of those polled were “comfortable with lesbians and gays.” A 2004 poll found that a majority of junior enlisted servicemembers believed gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military, up from 16 percent in 1992.
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The military’s leadership is finally catching up to its troops. On Sunday, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen told graduating cadets at the U.S. Military Academy that the military was ready to accept gay servicemembers if Congress repeals DADT:

Fux Newz continues to give that hacking clown, John Bolten, an avenue to express his wingnuttery

In a Fox News interview this afternoon, former UN Ambassador John Bolton discussed his desire to bomb camps inside Iran that are reportedly training and arming Shiite insurgents who fight in Iraq. Fox host Martha McCallum asked, “Can you imagine a scenario where President Bush would do that before the end of his term?” Bolton responded, “I think so, definitely.” He added later, “This is entirely responsible on our part.”

This is truly a crime of manslaughter at the very least

The general manager and possibly other senior staff at the Crandall Canyon Mine near Huntington, Utah, where 9 miners died in August 2007, hid information from federal mining officials that could have prevented the disaster and should face criminal charges, according to a Congressional investigation whose results were released Thursday.
The report also said that the mining company should never have submitted a request to remove coal from the section of mine where the collapse occurred, and that federal mining officials should not have approved the proposal, because of foreseeable dangers.

John McCain is no "straight talker." Flip Flopper? Indeed. He's not a moderate Republican and he exhibits no leadership qualities at all. He is, however, showing more "senior moments" all the time as his sad campaign of "100 more years of *war* in Iraq " goes on. Get a load of this:

Another day, another oops for McCain
Yesterday -- channeling Woodrow Wilson and Henry Cabot Lodge -- McCain referred to the "League of Nations." He had meant to say "League of Democracies," his proposal for a new organization of allies beyond the U.N.
And today, opening his judicial speech at Wake Forest, McCain got his "w's" mixed up: "I appreciate the hospitality of the students and faculty of West Virginia," McCain said, before correcting himself as the Deacs in the audience laughed.

It's a disgrace that the Supreme Court upheld Indiana's odious voter ID law. There is already hard evidence that some IN voters, nuns, were not allowed to vote today, but it makes you wonder how many regular voters just didn't bother to show up to the polls because they lacked a government issued ID. This Supreme Court, like Bu$h, will go down in history as shameful, incompetent party hacks

About 12 Indiana nuns were turned away Tuesday from a polling place by a fellow bride of Christ because they didn't have state or federal identification bearing a photograph.
Sister Julie McGuire said she was forced to turn away her fellow sisters at Saint Mary's Convent in South Bend, across the street from the University of Notre Dame, because they had been told earlier that they would need such an ID to vote.
The nuns, all in their 80s or 90s, didn't get one but came to the precinct anyway.
"One came down this morning, and she was 98, and she said, 'I don't want to go do that,'" Sister McGuire said. Some showed up with outdated passports. None of them drives.
They weren't given provisional ballots because it would be impossible to get them to a motor vehicle branch and back in the 10-day time frame allotted by the law, Sister McGuire said. "You have to remember that some of these ladies don't walk well. They're in wheelchairs or on walkers or electric carts."

The office of the official responsible for protecting federal workers from political interference was raided by F.B.I. agents on Tuesday as part of an investigation into whether he himself mixed politics with official business.
The raid took place at the office of Scott J. Bloch, the head of the Office of Special Counsel. Computers and documents were seized by agents trying to determine whether Mr. Bloch obstructed justice by hiring an outside company to “scrub” his computer files, The Associated Press reported. Investigators were also said to be obtaining a subpoena to search Mr. Bloch’s home.
. . .
The Office of Special Counsel gives advice to federal employees on which activities are proper and which are not allowed under the Hatch Act, which is supposed to guard against direct political interference in governmental affairs. Mr. Bloch’s duties including shielding whistle-blowers who disclose such political meddling.
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Mr. Bloch was in the news a year ago when his office began to look into political briefings given to employees of several agencies by aides to Karl Rove, who was then President Bush’s chief political adviser. The White House insisted at the time that the briefings met the definitions of allowable activities.
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Mr. Bloch’s critics quickly accused him of announcing an inquiry into the Rove-inspired briefings simply to draw attention away from his own shortcomings. At the time, he was the target of a complaint filed by a group of employees who accused him of trying to dismantle his own agency, of illegally barring employees from talking to journalists and of reducing a backlog of whistle-blower complaints by simply discarding old cases.