Can't Lose

U.S. News & World Report, in Bush Is Said to Have No Plan if GOP Loses, discusses the upcoming election, noting:

Some Republican strategists are increasingly upset with what they consider the overconfidence of President Bush and his senior advisers about the midterm elections November 7–a concern aggravated by the president's news conference this week.

"They aren't even planning for if they lose," says a GOP insider who informally counsels the West Wing. If Democrats win control of the House, as many analysts expect, Republicans predict that Bush's final two years in office will be marked by multiple congressional investigations and gridlock.

Likewise, the Washington Post, White House Upbeat About GOP Prospects, writes about the "upbeat" view of Bush and Rove, stating:

Amid widespread panic in the Republican establishment about the coming midterm elections, there are two people whose confidence about GOP prospects strikes even their closest allies as almost inexplicably upbeat: President Bush and his top political adviser, Karl Rove.

So what gives? Is it the bubble? Are they totally deluding themselves? As the Post queries:

The question is whether this is a case of justified confidence -- based on Bush's and Rove's electoral record and knowledge of the money, technology and other assets at their command -- or of self-delusion. Even many Republicans suspect the latter.

Or is there something else at work? For example, in the Washington Spectator, The Elephant in the Polling Booth, Mark Crispin Miller suggests:

To say that this election could go either way is not to say that the Republicans have any chance of winning it. As a civic entity responsive to the voters' will, the party's over, there being no American majority that backs it, or that ever would. Bush has left the GOP in much the same condition as Iraq, Afghanistan, the global climate, New Orleans, the Bill of Rights, our military, our economy and our national reputation. Thus the regime is reviled as hotly by conservatives as by liberals, nor do any moderates support it.

* * * *

And so the Democrats are feeling good, and calling for a giant drive to get the vote out on Election Day. Such an effort is essential—and not just to the Democrats but to the very survival of this foundering Republic. However, such a drive will do the Democrats, and all the rest of us, more harm than good if it fails to note a certain fact about our current situation: i.e., that the Democrats are going to lose the contest in November, even though the people will (again) be voting for them. The Bush Republicans are likely to remain in power despite the fact that only a minority will vote to have them there. That, at any rate, is what will happen if we don't start working to pre-empt it now.

Even though this election could go either way, neither way will benefit the Democrats. Either the Republicans will steal their "re-election" on Election Day, just as they did two years ago, or they will slime their way to "victory" through force and fraud and strident propaganda, as they did after Election Day 2000. Whichever strategy they use, the only way to stop it is to face it, and then shout so long and loud about it that the people finally perceive, at last, that their suspicions are entirely just—and, this time, just say no.

Now, I'm hardly a conspiracy theorist, but I do believe that the 2004 (and 2000?) election was "fixed." See, Can We Try Again?

It does seem that the reality of who the Republicans really are (and what they have done to U.S.) is starting to be understood by the electorate. Things certainly have been going downhill for the Republicans (read that: polls), so it no surprise that the Republican Party is concerned about the future.

So, when I start reading about how sure Bush & his cronies are of winning the November election, I just have to shake my head and wonder . . . .

UPDATE: At least I'm not alone in my paranoid ruminations. Lyn Davis Lear at Huffington Post, Why is the White House so Eerily Confident about the Coming Elections?, asks:

Are these guys simply narcissistic idiots Rove-ing around in some never-never land bubble or do they know something we don't? Have they planned a grab bag nose punch of an October/November surprise? Or have Diebold, ES&S, and local state secretaries assured them that they will do "whatever it takes" to get a Republican Congress elected again?

Tags: Bush, Politics, Election

Cartoon of the Day

* Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal Constitution

Tags: Political Cartoons

Isn't that Queer?

From AbZoolutelyCH

The split between the Republicans’ outward homophobia and inner gayness isn’t just hypocrisy; it’s pathology.

In other words, the Republicans are queer -- or strange -- in the true sense of the word. As usual Frank Rich provides the perfect expression to convey the point that he's making. In his latest op-ed piece, The Gay Old Party Comes Out, Frank remarks:

If anything good has come out of the Foley scandal, it is surely this: The revelation that the political party fond of demonizing homosexuals each election year is as well-stocked with trusted and accomplished gay leaders as virtually every other power center in America. “What you’re really seeing is the Republican Party on the Hill,” says Rich Tafel, the former leader of the gay Log Cabin Republicans whom George W. Bush refused to meet with during the 2000 campaign. “Across the board gay people are in leadership positions.” Yet it is this same party’s Congressional leadership that in 2006 did almost nothing about government spending, Iraq, immigration or ethics reform, but did drop everything to focus on a doomed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

The split between the Republicans’ outward homophobia and inner gayness isn’t just hypocrisy; it’s pathology. Take the bizarre case of Karl Rove. Every one of his Bush campaigns has been marked by a dirty dealing of the gay card, dating back to the lesbian whispers that pursued Ann Richards when Mr. Bush ousted her as Texas governor in 1994. Yet we now learn from “The Architect,” the recent book by the Texas journalists James Moore and Wayne Slater, that Mr. Rove’s own (and beloved) adoptive father, Louis Rove, was openly gay in the years before his death in 2004. This will be a future case study for psychiatric clinicians as well as historians.

So will Kirk Fordham, the former Congressional aide who worked not only for Mark Foley but also for such gay-baiters as Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma (who gratuitously bragged this year that no one in his family’s “recorded history” was gay) and Senator Mel Martinez of Florida (who vilified his 2004 Republican primary opponent, a fellow conservative, as a tool of the “radical homosexual agenda”). Then again, even Rick Santorum, the Pennsylvania senator who brought up incest and “man-on-dog” sex while decrying same-sex marriage, has employed a gay director of communications. In the G.O.P. such switch-hitting is as second nature as cutting taxes.

* * * *

But the reason why the Foley scandal has legs — and why it has upstaged most other news, from the Congressional bill countenancing torture to North Korea’s nuclear test — is not just that sex trumps everything else in a tabloid-besotted America. The Republicans, unlike most Democrats (Joe Lieberman always excepted), can’t stop advertising their “family values,” which is why their pitfalls are as irresistible as a Molière farce. It was entertaining enough to learn that the former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed wanted to go “humping in corporate accounts” with the corrupt gambling lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The only way that comic setup could be topped was by the news that Mr. Foley was chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus. It beggars the imagination that he wasn’t also entrusted with No Child Left Behind.

* * * *

“The hypocrisy, the winking and nodding is catching up with the party,” says Mr. Tafel, the former Log Cabin leader. . . . He adds that “the ironic point is that the G.O.P. isn’t as homophobic as it pretends to be.” Indeed two likely leading presidential competitors in 2008, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, are consistent supporters of gay civil rights.

Another ironic point, of course, is that the effort to eradicate AIDS, led by a number of openly gay appointees like Dr. Dybul, may prove to be the single most beneficent achievement of this beleaguered White House. To paraphrase a show tune you’re unlikely to hear around the Family Research Council, isn’t that queer?

As I said before, see Pink Elephants, I personally can't fathom how anyone could work for a group that is outwardly promoting the denigration of others because they are gay. For someone who is gay to do so is truly beyond my understanding. It's not just pathological, it's sad.

(Rich article also available at Tennessee Guerilla Women)

Tags: Commentary, Politics, Frank Rich

Surprise

A few weeks ago, it was reported that Karl Rove was telling conservative groups that he had a surprise scheduled for the last two weeks of October that would turn the midterms in the Republicans’ favor. See Pensito Review, Rove’s October Surprise Is Still Out There. Since then, there has been much speculation about what the surprise would be.

From The Rolling Stone, The Fear Factor, comes the answer to the question on everyone's mind:

What last-minute scare tactic will the Republicans pull to swing the midterm elections? Our panel of experts predicts this fall's October Surprise

My favorites:

Cheney Shoots Daughter!

BILL MAHER, comedian

(1) Bin Laden will be captured and we will discover a detailed plan of the next Al Qaeda strike as well as an entire album of color photos of Tom and Katie's baby.
(2) A terrorist plot to blow up the World Series will be foiled through a warrantless wiretap on the bullpen phone.
(3) John Mark Karr says Ted Kennedy put him up to it.
(4) Arrange for Iran to retake the hostages.
(5) Change the name of October to "9/11."
(6) To rally the religious right, Dick Cheney shoots his lesbian daughter in the face, accidentally.
(7) Announce that Saddam has escaped. And that he supports Ned Lamont.
(8) Finally admit global warming is caused by humans -- specifically, by the Dixie Chicks.
(9) Update the phrase "cut and run Democrats" to "fuck and run Democrats."
(10) Who needs an October Surprise when you've got Diebold?

____________

President Bush Assassinated!

LARRY BEINHART, author of "American Hero," the basis of the film "Wag the Dog"

Here's what Rove is going to do: He's going to have Bush assassinated. They blow up Air Force One. Maybe shoot it down with a missile that will turn out to have been stolen from a U.S. Air Force base. They'll track it back to Afghanistan, say it got into Al Qaeda's hands that way. It solves everything. It rallies Americans around this terrorist assassination and gets rid of this loser who's embarrassing them. Dick Cheney steps grimly to the helm, declares martial law and becomes President for Life.

(Via Daniel Kurtzman, Political Humor)

Tags: Satire, Humor

Is This Study Satire?

Joe Scarborough loves Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Of course, I can't really blame him. So do I. Recent Scarborough Country shows have focused on both the Daily Show and the Colbert Report.

Discussing a new "study" about the impact of the Daily Show which found that Jon Stewart is one of the most trusted names in the news, see video at , One Good Move.

The study found that the Daily Show contained as much news as did the network news broadcasts. See TV Squad. It's one of those good news for Stewart, bad news for the so-called journalists on the "real news shows." See But did we really need a study to figure that out? All you need is to watch both on a regular basis. As I said in Humor Hurts, and Public Enemy, enough with the studies already -- The Daily Show is excellent political satire and just plain funny. What more is there to say?

Scarborough then visits Colbert Nation with Adam Sternbergh, Steve Adubata Ph.D. and Philly's own Michael Smercomish, see video at One Good Move. This time, he discusses the upcoming anniversary of the Colbert Report, along with the piece on Stephen Colbert by Sternbergh in New York Magazine, see Colbert's Cult of Personality.

I think there may be a little jealousy there, because they are such the rage, but I also think Scarborough does like them, despite himself.

Tags: News & Media, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Video

Politics: The Only Religious Value

Keith Olbermann's Countdown continues it's look at the role of religion in the politics of George Bush and his fellow Republicans, as discussed in the new book, "Tempting Faith," by David Kuo (see The Nuts for Part 1).

The only religious value:

The Bush White House would use anything for politics, anything.

(See also Crooks & Liars for video & transcript).

UPDATE: Crooks & Liars also has the video (and transcript) of David Kuo on 60 Minutes. Says Kuo:

"God and politics had become very much fused together into a sort of a single entity. Where, in a way, politics was the fourth part of the trinity. God the father, God the son, God the holy spirit, God the politician."

CBS News also has the video available at its site, see A Loss Of Faith.

Tags: Countdown, Olbermann, Politics, Religion, Commentary, Video, David Kuo, 60 Minutes

Cartoon of the Day

* Pat Oliphant

Tags: Political Cartoons

Presidential Pique

[A]ccording to Steven Kull, a political psychologist who directs the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes, [s]ome people deal with failures . . . "by intensifying an authoritarian posture and insisting that their preferences are equivalent to a moral imperative."

This from a Washington Post piece, Bush Confounded by the 'Unacceptable', which reports that:

President Bush finds the world around him increasingly "unacceptable."

* * * *

Bush's decision to lay down blunt new markers about the things he deems intolerable comes at an odd time, a phase of his presidency in which all manner of circumstances are not bending to his will: national security setbacks in North Korea and Iraq, a Congress that has shrugged its shoulders at his top domestic initiatives, a favorability rating mired below 40 percent.

But a survey of transcripts from Bush's public remarks over the past seven years shows the president's worsening political predicament has actually stoked, rather than diminished, his desire to proclaim what he cannot abide. Some presidential scholars and psychologists describe the trend as a signpost of Bush's rising frustration with his declining influence.

* * * *

Bush's use of the term "reflects in some ways his frustration with a world that doesn't seem as amenable to his policies as he would like them to be," said Stanley A. Renshon, a political scientist at the City University of New York. Bush "has strong views; he believes in doing what is right. All of those things give an emotional force to his response" to events he often sees and describes without nuance.

Funny thing is, that's just what a majority of the people in this country (and the rest of the world) think about Bush:

Unacceptable!

Tags: Politics, Bush

Colbert's Cult of Personality

The video, from the blog Throw Away Your TV, is a Tribute to Stephen Colbert. The first anniversary of Stephen Colbert's Show is coming up next week, on October 17.

The former Jon Stewart protégé created an entire comic persona out of right-wing doublespeak, trampling the boundary between parody and politics. Which makes him the perfect spokesman for a political season in which everything is imploding.

This from an article, Stephen Colbert Has America by the Ballots, by Adam Sternbergh in New York Magazine. It is an interesting, in depth look at Colbert, the real person and the persona. It is definitely worth reading.

Also from the Magazine:

How to Win by Stephen Colbert

A lot of people have accused me of being a partisan Republican hack. Not true—I’m an Independent hack. I speak my mind and don’t play favorites. To prove it, I’ve put together sage advice for both Democrats and Republicans on how to rally voters for this November’s midterm elections.

ISSUE	ADVICE TO DEMOCRATS	ADVICE TO REPUBLICANS
The next House Leader will be...	(Whisper) ... nancy pelosi ...	Cleared of all charges.
The Economy	Ask, “Are you better off now than you were six years ago?	Ask, “Are you more blown up by a terrorist now than you were six years ago?”
The Plan for Iraq	Not “cut-and-run” … “sever-and-stroll.”	“What’s Iraq?”
The Budget	Say you won’t balance the budget on the backs of the poor.	Say you’ll sell advertising on the backs of the poor.
Illegal Immigration	“¡Hola! Voto para nosotros.”	“Do not wash the ‘rojo’ sock with the ‘blanco’ shirt.”
Global Warming	Appeal to coastal voters in states like Florida.	Appeal to future coastal voters in states like Ohio.
Health Care	Tell story of poor, uninsured mother of three to support your push for Universal Coverage.	Tell story of Tiny Tim to support your push for Christmas Miracles.
NSA Surveillance	Call anyone wearing a tie “a fascist.”	Call anyone wearing a wire “a patriot.”
Alternative Energy	The Limitless Power of Hemp!	Gitmo detainees on treadmill-generators!
Jobs	Support honest crusaders for workers’ rights, like the Teamsters.	“I hear the Army’s hiring …”
Prayer in School	There is no place in public school for God, no matter how you choose to define Him … or not define Him … or Her … or It … or Them … or … We?	The public schools need our prayers, because they’re sure not getting our money.
Smearing Your Opponents	Take the high road. It’s much easier to sling mud downhill.	Reveal new tests that prove McCain’s illegitimate black child actually fathered by (Democratic opponent’s name here).
Firing Up the Base	Get Clintons on TV as much as possible.	Get Clintons on TV as much as possible.

________

I blogged about the first Colbert Report show, see All Spin Zone, in which I noted a Salon review of the new Colbert Report: "Steven Colbert celebrates the era of ignorance, taking his bloviating journalist to a glorious new high with his "Daily Show" spinoff." I also posted a few highlights from the show, including: The Word, Truthiness. Check it out.

Tags: Stephen Colbert, Video

No One Could Predict that the Levee Would Break

Paul Krugman asks Will the Levee Break?, about the potential toppling of the Republican control of Congress in the Novemeber election. His prediction is that:

The conventional wisdom says that the Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives next month, but only by a small margin. I’ve been looking at the numbers, however, and I believe this conventional wisdom is almost all wrong.

Here’s what’s happening: a huge Democratic storm surge is heading toward a high Republican levee. It’s still possible that the surge won’t overtop the levee — that is, the Democrats could fail by a small margin to take control of Congress. But if the surge does go over the top, the flooding will almost surely reach well inland — that is, if the Democrats win, they’ll probably win big.

Let’s talk about Congressional arithmetic.

Unless the Bush administration is keeping Osama bin Laden in a freezer somewhere, a majority of Americans will vote Democratic this year. If Congressional seats were allocated in proportion to popular votes, a Democratic House would be a done deal. But they aren’t, and the way our electoral system works, combined with the way ethnic groups are distributed, still gives the Republicans some hope of holding on.

* * * *

And here’s the thing: because there are many districts that the G.O.P. carried by only moderately large margins in recent elections, a large Democratic surge — one only a bit bigger than that needed to take the House at all — would sweep away many Republicans holding seats normally considered safe. If the actual vote is anything like what the polls now suggest, we’re talking about the Democrats holding a larger majority in the House than the Republicans have held at any point since their 1994 takeover.

* * * *

Bear in mind that the G.O.P. isn’t in trouble because of a string of bad luck. The problems that have caused Americans to turn on the party, from the disaster in Iraq to the botched response to Katrina, from the failed attempt to privatize Social Security to the sudden realization by many voters that the self-proclaimed champions of moral values are hypocrites, are deeply rooted in the whole nature of Republican governance. So even if this surge doesn’t overtop the levee, there will be another surge soon.

But the best guess is that the permanent Republican majority will end in a little over three weeks.

Part of me agrees with Krugman, but the other part (the part that has a superstitious gene) doesn't want to jinx things by being too optomistic. As the Unknown Candidate says:

From Krugman's mouth to God's ears!

Wish I was as optimistic as the Krug Man. It's just those pesky black box voting machines ... so ripe for another sabotage -- that's what worries me more than anything.

And for the true contrarian view, see Andrew Greeley's opinion on the matter in Will Republicans Lose Control of Congress?

(Krugman article also available at Unknown Candidate)

Tags: Commentary, Politics, Krugman

Paraskevidekatriaphobia Day

(Thanks to Doug Savage at Savage Chickens)

See also Why Friday the 13th Is Unlucky.

Tags: Humor, Friday the 3th

Friday Funnies

It's Friday the 13th, so I thought that this comedy skit by Rowan Atkinson was perfect.

He gives "A Warm Welcome" to all the newcomers to Hell.

Not sure why lawyers are on the List.

(Thanks to Crooks & Liars)

Tags: Humor, Video

Cartoon of the Day

* R. J. Matson, The New York Observer

Tags: Political Cartoons

Quote of the Day

Dick Gregory
Born: October 12, 1932
__________

“[A politician is] a person skilled in the art of compromise.
Usually an elected official who has compromised
to get nominated, compromised to get elected,
and compromised repeatedly to stay in office.”

I saw Dick Gregory with Mort Sahl last year at the Painted Bride. They were the first political comedians. See Seriously Funny.

(Via My Left Wing)

Cartoon of the Day

* Kevin Siers, The Charlotte Observer

Tags: Political Cartoons

Gone, but Not Forgotten

The one room schoolhouse in Lancaster County has been razed, quietly removed in the dawn hours this morning. The scene of the murder of the 5 Amish school girls was gone in 15 minutes. See my earlier post on this, Troubles in Paradise.

"By Thanksgiving, the site of the massacre will be a memory in a meadow guarded by the two massive shade trees that stood on either side of the school," reports the Philadelphia Inquirer, In misty darkness, Amish schoolhouse is demolished.

There is much we can (and should) learn from the Amish. In A Silver Lining In A Very Dark Moral Cloud, Philosophers' Playground writes an essay marveling at the "humanity" of the Amish community, which expressed concern not only for the victims and their immediate families, but also for the family of the perpetrator. As he notes:

At a time when it would have been understandable, even forgivable, for those closest to the atrocious act to ignore the agony of the perpetrator's family, to lash out in an attempt to claim the space needed for them to work through their own grief, they instead opened their hearts to these fellow sufferers. This was truly an act of great ethical maturity.

I hope that we all can learn a lesson from them. In a world where we have begun a "war on terrorism" because we had become victims of the hatred of others, we need to learn to seek justice like these Amish families who were able to fully feel their own anger, grief, and despair while allowing everyone to retain their humanity. I solemnly hope that their wisdom and maturity in this time of great distress and sorrow may rub off on the rest of us.

We surely need some humanity to rub off on us.

Tags: News, Pennsylvania, Religion, Amish

The Nuts

Speaking about Iraq at a press conference, George Bush said, "The stakes couldn't be any higher. . . There are extreme elements that use religion to achieve objectives."

Truer words were never spoken by the President -- if you look at it in the opposite way it was said (which is the best way to take everything said by Bush).

Keith Olbermann, in his Countdown (video above), parses that phrase used by Bush as it applies to Bush and his Buddies.

Olbermann discusses a new book, "Tempting Faith," by David Kuo, who served as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Kau also has an article at Beliefnet, Shooting from the Heart, in which he addresses the promises not kept by the Administration.

Olbermann summarizes Kuo's bottom line:

The Bush White House is playing millions of American Christians for suckers.

According to Kuo, Karl Rove's office referred to evangelical leaders as 'the nuts.'

Kuo says, 'National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as 'ridiculous,' 'out of control,' and just plain 'goofy.' "

This refrain is not new. As Ron Suskind also reported, John DiIlulio, who also served in the same postion as Kuo in the Bush White House, had this to say about his experience:

"There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus," says DiIulio. "What you’ve got is everything—and I mean everything—being run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis."

See Remembrance of Things Lost.

(See also Crooks & Liars for video & transcript.)

UPDATE: Dick Polman also discusses Kuo's book at his American Debate blog, adding his take on the political fallout:

As the author of Tempting Faith contends, the Bush White House has been “mocking the millions of faithful Christians who put their trust and hope in the president and his administration.” He writes: “National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person, and then were dismissed behind their backs as ‘ridiculous,’ ‘out of control,’ and ‘just plain goofy.” He says that, in Karl Rove’s office, evangelical leaders were known as “the nuts.” All told, the author writes that, aside from its interest in mining the religious right’s votes, the Bush team “simply didn’t care.”

* * * *

Thanks to the Mark Foley scandal, and longstanding grievances about a lack of GOP attention to their issues, Christian conservatives already seemed insufficiently enthused about the ’06 elections.

* * * *

And this morning, Gallup is reporting even more startling numbers, in its survey of “white frequent churchgoers” (a group that is probably broader than evangelicals, but nevertheless has been strongly pro-GOP in recent elections). Gallup says that, over the past month, Democrats have registered a 22-point gain among these voters. The result: 47 percent of white frequent churchgoers now favor a Democratic candidate, and 47 percent favor a Republican. Until now, a tie would have been unthinkable.

Which is why David Kuo’s book is probably the last thing that Republicans need right now.

Tags: Olbermann, Commentary, Countdown, Religion, Politics, Video

Cartoon of the Day

* M.e. Cohen

Tags: Political Cartoons

She Never Cursed the Dark

Eleanor Roosevelt
Born: October 11, 1884

It is better to light one small candle
than to curse the darkness.
____

Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.

(Via My Left Wing)

Tags: Quote of the Day

Arlen's Aberration

In her Daily News op-ed piece, ARLEN THE CHAMELEON, Deborah Leavy takes on the not so illustrious Arlen Specter, Senator of PA. She writes:

The senator has long been considered a moderate Republican, a term that by now is almost an oxymoron. On occasion, he can be a thorn in the side of the administration, but he doesn't stray far, or for long.

Speculation is that Specter sold his soul to conservative Republicans after they threatened his chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee over his remarks about the poor chances of pro-life Supreme Court candidates.

Maybe that satanic bargain explains why his courage failed just recently over the administration's bill on enemy combatants. Specter, a former DA who knows the meaning of the Constitution, saw that the bill gave the president unbridled power to designate anyone, even U.S. citizens, as "enemy combatants" who could then be imprisoned indefinitely without charges or trial - and, in the case of non-citizens, including legal permanent residents, even access to federal courts to challenge their imprisonment.

Specter called the bill "patently unconstitutional on its face" - before he voted for it, explaining he expected the federal courts "will clean it up."

* * * *

When push comes to shove, Specter almost always folds his cards and lets the administration win.

* * * *

Unfortunately, Specter hasn't strayed far from a Republican president since. He believed Clarence Thomas over Anita Hill, and badgered her mercilessly. He asked tough questions of Supreme Court nominees John Roberts and Sam Alito, but accepted evasive non-answers.

Sen. Specter may say he is pro-choice, pro-labor, pro-environment, pro-civil rights and women's rights, but he's had no problem voting to confirm three Supreme Court justices, as well as numerous appellate court judges, with records opposing all those things.

Ahh, yes. That's the real Senator Specter. He never had a soul to sell. The Bork vote was a one time deal, which he's been using to fake out liberals ever since. An aberration.

That's why he's been called The Manchurian Senator, see Mutt & Jeff,

A Gutless Republican Worm, and

Wafflin' Arlen, see We're in Trouble.

Tags: Commentary, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Politics, Specter

Forget About Freedom Act

As I wrote a few weeks ago in Oh Tyranny, Thy Name is US, the Military Commissions Act, which was passed post haste on September 28th by Congress, eliminates habeas corpus rights for "enemy combatants" (as defined by GWB).

Crooks & Liars has a video (and transcript) of Keith Olbermann, with his Countdown story, “Why does habeas corpus hate America”, in which he describes the meaning of this action as it applies to our constitution and our country. Unfortunately, this assault on our rights and liberties has been mostly overlooked by the media in the wake of the Foley brouhaha.

Tags: Law, Civil Liberties, Politics, Olbermann, Countdown, Video

Cartoon of the Day

* Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal Constitution

Tags: Political Cartoons

Gang of Paranoids

Paul Krugman discusses the Foley scandal as it relates to the psyche of the Republican Party generally, in The Paranoid Style. As only he could, Krugman provides the historical background and context to this political movement. In explaining Hastert's reaction to the Foley scandal, he notes that:

[It] exemplifies what the historian Richard Hofstadter famously called “the paranoid style in American politics.”

Hofstadter’s essay introducing the term was inspired by his observations of the radical right-wingers who seized control of the Republican Party in 1964. Today, the movement that nominated Barry Goldwater controls both Congress and the White House.

As a result, political paranoia — the “sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy” Hofstadter described — has gone mainstream. To read Hofstadter’s essay today is to be struck by the extent to which he seems to be describing the state of mind not of a lunatic fringe, but of key figures in our political and media establishment.

The “paranoid spokesman,” wrote Hofstadter, sees things “in apocalyptic terms. ... He is always manning the barricades of civilization.” Sure enough, Dick Cheney says that “the war on terror is a battle for the future of civilization.”

According to Hofstadter, for the paranoids, “what is at stake is always a conflict between absolute good and absolute evil,” and because “the enemy is thought of as being totally evil and totally unappeasable, he must be totally eliminated.” Three days after 9/11, President Bush promised to “rid the world of evil.”

The paranoid “demand for total triumph leads to the formulation of hopelessly unrealistic goals” — instead of focusing on Al Qaeda, we’ll try to remake the Middle East and eliminate a vast “axis of evil” — “and since these goals are not even remotely attainable, failure constantly heightens the paranoid’s sense of frustration.” Iraq, anyone?

Regarding the Foley scandal, he adds:

The immediate response by nearly everyone in the Republican establishment — wild claims, without a shred of evidence behind them, that the whole thing is a Democratic conspiracy — may sound crazy. But that response is completely in character for a movement that from the beginning has been dominated by the paranoid style. And here’s the scary part: that movement runs our government.

This phenomenon has been attributed to the party in power for some time. That is, the style of the Republicans is to act like martyrs, even though they are the party in control. This stance justifies a reaction to any form of dissent or disagreement as evidence of partisan politics or bias. See, e.g., Criminalization of Politics.

Krugman has just put a name to it. GOP certainly is subject to many variations. Gang of Paranoids may be one of the most appropriate.

(Article also available at The Unknown Candidate)

Tags: Commentary, Politics, Krugman

Cartoon of the Day

* Mark Streeter, Savannah Morning News

Tags: Political Cartoons

Pink Elephants

Mark Leibovich writes in the NY Times, Foley Case Upsets Balance of Gay Republicans, about the still-closeted gay Republicans -- "Known in some insider slang as the Velvet Mafia or the Pink Elephants, gay Republicans tend to be less open about their sexual orientation than their Democratic counterparts."

No? Afraid to express oneself in the party that panders to homophobes? Can it be true?

On this same theme, Marc Ambinder of the National Journal states, in A Calamity For Gay Republicans, that the gay Republicans "feared a backlash." That is:

A close friend of Foley's summed up the situation this way: "It is a disgrace. It's a disgrace for the party, and it's a disgrace and a disaster for all of us."

Washington's community of gay Republicans includes at least one member of Congress, more than a dozen high-ranking congressional aides, current and former White House staffers, advisers to the Pentagon, press strategists for prominent conservatives, several well-known journalists, and a legion of influential lobbyists.

Calling it "a sociological quirk of Washington life" the article notes:

Republicans in Washington, even some who publicly crusade against gay marriage and refuse to meet, officially, with gay Republican groups, often knowingly hire and socialize with gay people. The atmosphere of quiet accommodation extends to the top reaches of the party.

* * * *

Not surprisingly, many Democrats and liberal gay-rights activists shun well-placed gay Republicans as traitors to their sexual orientation.

Pam Spalding also has an excellent assessment of the issues (and articles) at Pandagon:

[The] stories about the gay Republican subculture of DC running now . . . that is politely skirting what we all know is a depth of knowledge about who is and isn’t gay in this scandal that the media is withholding.

I’m not arguing that they should or shouldn’t out anyone, but that if it turns out to be relevant that a lot of lies about the Foley scandal are being told because some powerful closet doors are going to get blown open, the GOP has a big problem here because we’re talking about elected officials preying on children and abusing their positions of power in order to do so.

This may be more about protecting GOP closets than it is about gay Republicans in top positions of power trying to save their jobs (though with one, probably comes the other at this rate in the scandal).

* * * *

The closet is really a short-hand term to describe a coping mechanism many gay people have developed because of our heterosupremacist society and the homophobic religious upbringing that too many of us have been immersed in. Anyone who tells you that either of these factors has no impact on the mental health of an individual would be lying. That’s like Tony Snow saying racism doesn’t exist or have any impact on the life, health or self-perception of a person of color in this society.

What one can and should point out — and what seems to have been lost in much of the debate — is it matters how one chooses to deal with the factors that create the need for the closet.

You can seek help to develop self-awareness and acceptance over time, or you can be forced into a dark place.

Likewise, Glenn Greenwald has covered this issue in depth, exploring the various nuances of the scandal. My favorite post is Does the Foley scandal prove the existence of a God?. Calling the scandal "divinely inspired," he lists the corrupt attributes that are vividly on display:

The absolute refusal ever to admit error. The desperate clinging to power above all else. The efforts to cloud what are clear matters of wrongdoing with irrelevant sideshows. And the parade of dishonest and just plainly inane demonization efforts to hide and distract from their wrongdoing: hence, the pages are manipulative sex vixens; a shadowy gay cabal is to blame; the real criminals are those who exposed the conduct, not those who engaged in it; liberals created the whole scandal; George Soros funded the whole thing; a Democratic Congressman did something wrong 23 years ago; one of the pages IM'd with Foley as a "hoax", and on and on. There has been a virtual carousel -- as there always is -- of one pathetic, desperate attempt after the next to deflect blame and demonize those who are pointing out the wrongdoing. This is what they always do, on every issue. The difference here is that everyone can see it, and so nothing is working.

* * * *

Beyond the deceit and desperation is the hypocrisy so glaring that it makes one's eyes squint. The examples are literally too numerous to chronicle, but one of my personal favorites is the feigned above-it-all, dismissive bewilderment that something as inconsequential and petty as a sex scandal could possibly be getting so much attention.

* * * *

The same people who impeached a popular, twice-elected President of the U.S. over a sex scandal involving consenting adults, who caused our country's political dialogue for several years to be composed of the filthiest and most scurrilous speculation peddled by some of the lowest bottom-feeders and dirt-mongers, and who constructed a political movement based in large part on sermonizing about private sexual morality and demonizing those who deviate, are now protesting -- without any irony -- the fact that a sex scandal is distracting from the Truly Important Issues our country faces and that Mark Foley's sexual pursuit over many years of 16 and 17-year-old Congressional pages is nothing that really matters.

All true. And in the end, I just don't understand how anyone can be a member of the Republican Party -- especially if you are gay. But there have always been Uncle Toms. I guess this would just be the Uncle Gaylord version.

(I didn't have a pink elephant, so this elephant from AbZOOlutely Chestnut Hill will have to do).

Tags: Politics, Foley

Stunning Loss for GOP

In what could only be seen as a devastating loss for the Republican Party in Pennsylvania, the electorate in Philadelphia unanimously voted the GOP -- literally -- out of town.

What's that, you say? How could that be? Election day is not until November 7th?

In a clear prelude to the upcoming Republican trouncing in the November election, the Board of the Philadelphia Zoo voted to close the pachyderm exhibit & banish the elephants. See Phila. Zoo to close elephant exhibit.

What else could it portend? Other than the (rear) end?

Tags: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Politics, Satire

Simply False

Time blogger Andrew Sullivan, in his Daily Dish, has a video news segment of a TV station fact checking a Rick Santorum ad. His take:

A devastating dissection of an anti-Casey Santorum ad. The champion of moral values has no problem with bearing false witness. The local TV station has a variety of labels to judge the accuracy of campaign ads. This Santorum one got the worst label possible: false.

It's Sunday, so this thought comes to mind. What is most amazing to me about Santorum is that he professes to be such a religious person. His Catholic faith is supposedly the basis for many of his extreme, hardcore conservative positions, such as abortion and gay marriage. Yet he is not well acquainted with the truth. See, e.g., A Lie Told Well, for other examples of his "arrogant display of mendacity." As I noted then:

For some reason, the Republicans don't even seem to care whether their previous contrary views are published or preserved on video. They feel free to deny, adamantly I might add, things that are easily proven otherwise. I think it's just a matter of they think they could. There are no consequences when they are caught in a "red handed" lie. The spin machine is brought out, and it's so fine-tuned, that the lie is lost somewhere in the partisan attack.

Now I am a product of a Catholic education (including law school, I might add). As I recall, under the tenets of the Catholic Church, lying is a sin. Yet Mr. Catholic Santorum lies often and often lies. On the one hand, his political mantra is that he cannot brook any compromise on those issues that are faith-based, because the Bible tells him so, yet he bends the rules as needed for his personal benefit. So, he's a hypocrite and a liar. I think that about sums it up.

For another interesting take on Santorum and his political persona, see, Tom Ferrick's post, A Churchillian Moment, at his PoliBlog 2006.

UPDATE: For more Shuffling from Sanctimonious Santorum, see Santorum Lies About Iraq by the Pennsylvania Progressive, on his appearance on Philly's Live@Issue on Channel 10.

(Via Throw Away your TV, which also has the video)

_____
Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing the matter with this, except that it ain't so.
~Mark Twain

Tags: Pennsylvania, Politics, Santorum, Video, Quote of the Day

Cartoon of the Day

* Ann Tellnaes

Tags: Political Cartoons

Waste No Tears for Me

The NY Times reports that Buck O’Neil, Negro Leagues Pioneer, Is Dead at 94:

For O’Neil, baseball represented a lifelong joy. “Nowadays, whenever us Negro leaguers put on the old uniforms for autograph-signings and such, you can just see the years peel away,” he wrote in his memoirs. “I’ve seen men lose 50 years in just a few hours. Baseball is better than sex. It is better than music, although I do believe jazz comes in a close second. It does fill you up.”

Wright Thompson of ESPN (whoever would have thought that I'd be citing ESPN on my site) reflects, O'Neil was the real 'voice' of America:

Buck O'Neil lived to see the white high school that wouldn't admit him open its doors to all people. He lived to see the kids he scouted turn into Hall of Famers. He lived, as he liked to say, to meet presidents from Truman to Clinton (and he lived to huuuuug Hillary).

* ** *

When he didn't get into the Hall of Fame this year, people rightfully howled. As the news reached him, a final denied dream in a life full of dreams denied, he just smiled. "God's been good to me," he said that day. "If I'm a Hall of Famer for you, that's all right with me. Just keep loving old Buck. Don't weep for Buck. No, man, be happy, be thankful." On a day that should have been the pinnacle of a life dedicated to helping others, he showed up at the podium in Cooperstown anyway to help honor the Negro Leaguers who did make the cut .

* * * *

Even though he wasn't elected to the Hall of Fame, his speech served as a reminder to the world about his accomplishments. He led the Negro Leagues in hitting. He won two titles as a Negro Leagues manager. As a scout for the Cubs, he signed Lou Brock to a contract; and in 1962, the Cubs made him the first black coach in the majors. But it was his final role, as ambassador, in Ken Burns' documentary about baseball and in countless rooms and auditoriums across the country, that defined him. He made America face its own painful history.

In March, I even wrote about his exclusion from the Hall of Fame. As I wrote in Hall of Shame, I'm hardly a baseball fan, but I liked his story and his spirit.

And even though he didn't get in the Hall of Fame, Blogger Gone Mild notes in Colbert Honors Buck O'Neil, that "Stephen Colbert just put a picture of local favorite Negro-leaguer Buck O'Neil on his mantel, proclaiming it a bigger honor than the Hall of Fame."

See also, LAist, Baseball Legend Buck O'Neil Dies at 95.

Tags: News, Buck O'Neil

What's My Line?

For your Friday Funnies:

Jon Stewart considers the "comma" (see God Has Spoken), and also wonders if Bush's job approval rating is so low simply because we don't know exactly what his job is. Stewart tries to explore this question of What's My Job, Presidential version, based on Bush's own words.

Tags: Daily Show, Jon Stewart, Bush, Video

Cartoon of the Day

* Kirk Walters, The Blade

Tags: Political Cartoons

The Fabric has Unraveled

Keith Olbermann provides another compelling Special Comment, in which he warns of the true dangers of the lies promolgated by President Bush -- to preserve the power of the Republican Party.

As he notes: "They are never wrong and they never regret."

Olbermann also quotes General Tommy Frank, who was concerned that another attacks against our country might cause the population to react in a manner that would result in "the fabric of our constitution being Unraveled," adding that, even without an attack, "here we are, the fabric of our Constitution being unraveled anyway."

Video (and transcript) also available at Olbermann’s Special Comment.

Tags: Commentary, Countdown, Olbermann, Video

Law of Unintended Consequences

Author Robert Harris has written a fascinating editorial piece for the International Herald Tribune, The 'war on terror' that ruined Rome, which describes an incident that eventually led to the fall of the Roman Empire which eerily parallels current events in the United States. He writes:

In the autumn of 68 B.C. the world's only military superpower was dealt a profound psychological blow by a daring terrorist attack on its very heart. Rome's port at Ostia was set on fire, the consular war fleet destroyed, and two prominent senators, together with their bodyguards and staff, kidnapped.

The incident, dramatic though it was, has not attracted much attention from modern historians. But an event that was merely a footnote five years ago has now, in our post-9/11 world, assumed a fresh and ominous significance. For in the panicky aftermath of the attack, the Roman people made decisions that set them on the path to the destruction of their Constitution, their democracy and their liberty. One cannot help wondering if history is repeating itself.

Consider the parallels. The perpetrators of this spectacular assault were not in the pay of any foreign power: No nation would have dared to attack Rome so provocatively. Like Al Qaeda, these pirates were loosely organized, but able to spread a disproportionate amount of fear among citizens who had believed themselves immune from attack.

What was to be done? Over the preceding centuries, the Constitution of ancient Rome had developed an intricate series of checks and balances intended to prevent the concentration of power in the hands of a single individual. The consulship, elected annually, was jointly held by two men. Ordinary citizens were accustomed to a remarkable degree of liberty: the cry of "Civis Romanus sum" - "I am a Roman citizen" - was a guarantee of safety throughout the world.

But such was the panic that ensued after Ostia that the people were willing to compromise these rights.

* * * *
By the oldest trick in the political book - the whipping up of a panic, in which any dissenting voice could be dismissed as "soft" or even "traitorous" - powers had been ceded by the people that would never be returned.

* * * *
Those of us who are not Americans can only look on in wonder at the similar ease with which the ancient rights and liberties of the individual are being surrendered in the United States in the wake of 9/11. The vote by the Senate on Thursday to suspend the right of habeas corpus for terrorism detainees, denying them their right to challenge their detention in court; the careful wording about torture, which forbids only the inducement of "serious" physical and mental suffering to obtain information; the licensing of the president to declare a legal resident of the United States an enemy combatant - all this represents an historic shift in the balance of power between the citizen and the executive.

An intelligent, skeptical American would no doubt scoff at the thought that what has happened since 9/11 could presage the destruction of a centuries-old constitution; but then, I suppose, an intelligent, skeptical Roman in 68 B.C. might well have done the same.

It may be that the Roman republic was doomed in any case. But the disproportionate reaction to the raid on Ostia unquestionably hastened the process, weakening the restraints on military adventurism and corrupting the political process. It was to be more than 1,800 years before anything remotely comparable to Rome's democracy - imperfect though it was - rose again.

The Lex Gabinia was a classic illustration of the law of unintended consequences: It fatally subverted the institution it was supposed to protect. Let us hope that vote in the United States Senate does not have the same result.

______
The world's history is constant, like the laws of nature, and simple, like the souls of men. The same conditions continually produce the same results.

-- Friedrich Von Schiller

Tags: Commentary, History, Quote of the Day

Give me an "I"

Stephen Colbert discusses Bob Woodward and Henry Kissinger, as part of his intro to the Word. And what's the word? I'll give you a hint. It begins with "I."

Tags: Stephen Colbert, The Word, Video

Cartoon of the Day

* Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer

Tags: Political Cartoons

Reprehensible You

[Steven] Howards approached the vice president and told him, " 'Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.'

Those words, according to the Rocky Mountain News, were sufficient to cause the arrest of the man who uttered them, Man files suit over Cheney encounter. Steven Howards has sued, arguing that he was "arrested in retaliation for having exercised his First Amendment right of free speech, and that his arrest also violated his Fourth Amendment protection against unlawful arrest." The article explains:

The lawsuit stems from a chance meeting on an outdoors mall in Beaver Creek on June 16, when Howards and his wife were walking their two sons to a piano camp.

They were surprised to see Cheney there, posing for pictures and shaking hands with members of the public.

"Many of us fantasize what would we do if we had the opportunity to really tell Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney how we feel," said Howards, 54, of Golden.

"And to be honest, when I passed him, my initial thought was to keep walking. And then I said, I couldn't with a clear conscience let this opportunity pass."

* * * *

But a few minutes later, according to Howards, he was walking back across the mall with his younger son, Jonah, then 8, when he was approached by an agent . . . .

The agent, Howards said, "came out of the shadows and literally said, 'Did you assault the vice president?'

* * * *

Howards denied touching Cheney, repeated for the agent what he had said to the vice president, and promptly found himself being handcuffed and taken to the Eagle County Jail, where he said he remained cuffed for three hours prior to being bailed out by his wife.

Howard obviously has a pre-9/11 mentality. See, e.g., Just Calm Down, Please. He states:

"This (lawsuit) is really about whether we in fact live in a free nation, whether we in fact still have the ability to speak freely in our opposition to government policies," Howards said.

_________

"Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."

William Orville Douglas

Tags: Civil Liberties, Law, News, Quote of the Day

Cartoon of the Day

* Randy Bish, Pittsburgh Tribune Review

Tags: Political Cartoons

Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Pages

Song of the Day:

Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Pages

By: David Ippolito -- That Guitar Man from Central Park (Pictured above, with his special thanks and apologies to Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson.)

(Via ThomasMc)

Tags: Music, Political Satire

Troubles in Paradise

Every year, my extended family holds a family reunion in Lancaster County, so I was there a few weeks ago.

The ride from Philly is always a pleasure, as I pass through towns like Intercourse on my way to the reunion. This year, the weather was glorious, so I drove The Red Menace with the top down. In fact, as I was stopped at a light, I spotted an Old Order Amish man staring at me. I was sure that he was going to call me out as a sinner for my worldly ways. Instead, he smiled, gave me a thumbs up & said, "great car."

Likewise, I view the Amish lifestyle with respect and admiration, even though it is not a way of life I would want for myself. The school shooting is especially grievous, for a peaceful people as the Amish.

There are a few interesting articles, all from the United Kingdom, that I have seen about the Amish in the wake of this sad event. The BBC News, in Who are the Amish? provides a good background about the Pennsylvania Dutch people, as they are sometimes called.

I heard British journalist Jill Thompson yesterday on NPR discuss her experiences living with the Amish. She has an article in the Telegraph, They aren't as unworldly as they appear, describing her time in Lancaster County. And the Times writes They are grieving, but not angry . . . and not a twitch of emotion shows, about the aftermath of this tragedy. As the piece notes:

But in this hamlet of 27 homes and one church, there were no pictures of the victims to see yesterday — the Amish forbid photography. There were no relatives weeping to camera, describing their grief. There were no publicity agents lining up interviews with Oprah Winfrey, or family spokesmen releasing names. There was nothing — except a quiet, but enormously powerful, public stoicism.

* * * *

Nickel Mines is little more than a crossroads: a cluster of stone houses, an auction house, and a Mennonite church, surrounded by cornfields, grain silos and vast, hand-built Dutch barns. It was settled in 1744, and for 260 years life has meandered along, largely unchanged.

The Amish do not use machines, and farm work is still done by hand. There are few telephones, and no televisions. They do not drive cars.

The Amish who live here are conservative, deeply pacifist and revere God. They dress like their German peasant forbears, the men in straw hats, braces and boots, the women in plain dresses and bonnets.

* * * *

Donald Kraybill, an expert on the Amish community, said: “In many ways, they are better prepared than most Americans to deal with such a tragedy.

“They have a huge family support network. They will not get angry. The pain will be deep, but they will not have to process it alone. They will cry, but it will be in private.

“And they will believe that it is God’s will and that it is nobody else’s business.”

(Picture of young boy at work, taken at our reunion lunch)

Tags: News, Religion, Amish

Wanted: GOP Page

(Thanks to TENNESSEE GUERILLA WOMEN)

The End is Near

In a column that highlights the widening rift between the social and religious conservatives and economic conservatives within the Republican party, Paul Krugman offers hope for the future, in Things Fall Apart. He observes:

At its core, the political axis that currently controls Congress and the White House is an alliance between the preachers and the plutocrats — between the religious right, which hates gays, abortion and the theory of evolution, and the economic right, which hates Social Security, Medicare and taxes on rich people. Surrounding this core is a large periphery of politicians and lobbyists who joined the movement not out of conviction, but to share in the spoils.

* * * *

The coalition has, however, always been more vulnerable than it seemed, because it was an alliance based not on shared goals, but on each group’s belief that it could use the other to get what it wants. Bring that belief into question, and the whole thing falls apart.

Future historians may date the beginning of the right-wing crackup to the days immediately following the 2004 election, when President Bush tried to convert a victory won by portraying John Kerry as weak on defense into a mandate for Social Security privatization. The attempted bait-and-switch failed in the face of overwhelming public opposition. If anything, the Bush plan was even less popular in deep-red states like Montana than in states that voted for Mr. Kerry.

And the religious and cultural right, which boasted of having supplied the Bush campaign with its “shock troops” and expected a right-wing cultural agenda in return — starting with a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage — was dismayed when the administration put its energy into attacking the welfare state instead. James Dobson, the founder and chairman of Focus on the Family, accused Republicans of “just ignoring those that put them in office.”

* * * *

In any case, just as the religious right was feeling betrayed by Mr. Bush’s focus on the goals of the economic right, the economic right suddenly seemed to become aware of the nature of its political allies. “Where in the hell did this Terri Schiavo thing come from?” asked Dick Armey, the former House majority leader, in an interview with Ryan Sager, the author of “The Elephant in the Room: Evangelicals, Libertarians and the Battle to Control the Republican Party.” The answer, he said, was “blatant pandering to James Dobson.” He went on, “Dobson and his gang of thugs are real nasty bullies.”

As I noted in America: Last Gasp?, things have been particularly dispiriting of late. So, it is to hear a voice of optimism, however slight.

(Picture thanks to, and Krugman article available at, TENNESSEE GUERILLA WOMEN)

Cartoon of the Day

* Ann Telnaes

The Fluffers of Liberty

The Daily Show on the Foley scandal.

For more Foley fodder, see Stephen Colbert and Jay Leno's Show, Pages, Pundits, and Politics.

Tags: Daily Show, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Mark Foley, Video

Peacekeeper & Humanitarian

President Jimmy Carter
Born: October 1, 1924

A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It's a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.

* * * *

Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future.

(Via My Left Wing)

Constitutional Postscript

* Dwayne Booth (Mr. Fish)

Tags: Political Cartoons

It Lives Only by Their Will

Last night, I went to an event at the National Constitution Center. It was the first time I've been there since it opened in July of 2003. The museum is not far from Independence Hall, the site where the Constitution was first adopted on September 17, 1787.

What a place for a party! Drink in hand, you can look out the huge glass windows with a stunning view of Independence Mall and Independence Hall, three blocks to the south.

Wandering around this building, which is intended to be a testament to our Constitution, I could not help but reflect upon the irony of the recent assaults upon that document by our government in power, on what seems to be a daily basis.

In "Signers Hall," as I walked amid life-size bronze statues of the 42 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, I whispered to them that things weren't looking too good these days for the Constitutional protections that they tried to create for our country and system of government.

I could almost hear them reply -- are you telling us something we don't know? This isn't the first time & probably won't be the last. If things don't work out, maybe it's time for a revolution.

Tags: Philadelphia, Philly, National Constitution Center, Quote of the Day

Cartoon of the Day

* Rex Babin

Tags: Political Cartoons

You Can't Handle the Truth

Jon Stewart is masterful in skewering the media in this clip -- from print to TV News.

Tags: Jon Stewart, Daily Show, Video, News & Media