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A November Surprise for Karl and Ted
![karl_rove_3[1].jpg](http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/archives/karl_rove_3[1].jpg)
We’ve all been wondering if the Prince of Darkness, a.k.a. Karl Rove, had one final October Surprise up his sleeve. And with the flood of political gay bashing that we’ve witnessed from President Bush ever since the New Jersey Supreme Court shockingly decided that homosexuals were Americans too, and his demonization of the intent behind John Kerry’s badly delivered joke, it seemed possible that Rove might pull off one final dark miracle.
Well, Election Day came a little bit later in 2006 – and that left room for life to present an already disenchanted electorate with its own November Surprise. One of the cornerstones of Rove’s GOTV strategy involves the placing of amendments that would ban same sex marriage in state constitutions on ballots, in an attempt to insure that religious conservatives, thought to be strong supporters of GOP candidates, would turn out in large numbers on Election Day. Well, this time that effort may backfire.
Before yesterday, Ted Haggard, the pastor of the New Life mega-church of Colorado Springs, was the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and a fiery opponent of gay marriage. Today, he is a pastor forced to step down from his pulpit, accused of having a three-year relationship with a male prostitute, not to mention a taste for Crystal Meth.
Could these shocking (well, not really shocking to anyone with a bit of insight into the human psyche) accusations be true? Ross Parsley, the acting senior pastor at the New Life Church, told KKTV of Colorado Springs yesterday that:
I just know that there has been some admission of indiscretion, not admission to all of the material that has been discussed but there is an admission of some guilt.
Haggard's accuser, and alleged paid sexual partner, Mike Jones, had this to say as to why he went public at this moment:
I just want people to step back and take a look and say, 'Look, we're all sinners, we all have faults, but if two people want to get married, just let them, and let them have a happy life.
Jones is set to undergo a polygraph examination this morning, so we should know a bit more about his credibility later in the day. But this story cannot be good news for GOP "get out the vote" efforts as we head into the mid-terms next Tuesday. It must be sending shock waves through conservative Christian communities - and hopefully prompting some honest members to ask a couple of relevant questions, like: “if Pastor Ted is gay, or even bi, what about so and so?” And, “is my homophobia caused by a repressed desire to occasionally, like Pastor Ted, 'take a walk on the wild side'?” Cue the Lou Reed song…
The URL for CNN's coverage of the Haggard affair is here.
It sure seems to me that life has just thrown a big monkey wrench into Karl Rove’s GOTV effort – although I could be wrong. After all, a curtained voting booth might just remind certain religious conservatives of the closet that they’re obviously so very accustomed to being inside of.
Story update: Haggard is now claiming that he bought Crystal Meth from Jones, and originally contacted him to get a massage - but never had sex with him, and threw away the Meth. As Dana Carvey's Church Lady character used to say: "Now isn't that special..."
Gee, I never thought I'd give up my wrench for anyone, especially Karl Rove.
Titan nuts.
Perhaps we revisit Bohemian Grove connections...
"The Bohemian Grove, that I attend from time to time — the (inaudible) and the others come there — but it is the most faggy goddamn thing that you would ever imagine. The San Francisco crowd, it's just terrible. I can't even shake hands with anybody from San Francisco." — President Richard M. Nixon, Bohemian Club member starting in 1953
"If I were to choose the speech that gave me the most pleasure and satisfaction in my political career, it would be my Lakeside Speech at the Bohemian Grove in July 1967. Because this speech traditionally was off the record it received no publicity at the time. But in many important ways it marked the first milestone on my road to the presidency." — President Richard Nixon again, in a more mellow mood, in his Memoirs (1978), cited by Domhoff below. (The rule that sitting presidents are not allowed to attend the Grove was sparked by a media clamour to cover a Lakeside Talk that Nixon wanted to give in 1971, but was forced by the directors of the Grove to withdraw.)
"The mood is reminiscent of high school. There's no end to the pee-pee and penis jokes, suggesting that these men, advanced in so many other ways, were emotionally arrested sometime during adolescence" — Philip Weiss, Spy Magazine journalist, who infiltrated the Grove in 1989.
"So, I was there witnessing something right out of the medieval painter Hieronymus Bosch’s Visions of Hell: burning metal crosses, priests in red and black robes with the high priest in a silver robe with a red cape, a burning body screaming in pain, a giant stone great-horned owl, world leaders, bankers, media and the head of academia engaged in these activities. It was total insanity" — Alex Jones, describing the Cremation of Care ceremony he witnessed at the Grove in 2000.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_grove
Monkey:
I've met a few Grove "widows" here in SF, and there's always a wink and a smile. But then again, in the upper 95% here in the city, I always secretly thought there were alot of "beard" marriages amongst the power elite.
I'm a straight but not narrow person, and my family includes men and women of all sexual stripes--love is love after all. But to set up entire organizations--corporations mind you, to prevent the full access to social rights for particular groups--PARTICULARLY THOSE WITH WHO YOU HAVE DIRECT AFFINITY--is twisted and sick.
This is as bad as Foley. But the preying here is done on a mass level. I wonder if those people who struggled to get their credit scores up to MAKE IT into these mega-churches feel as burned as the Cremation of Care effigy set on fire in the Grove.
Wow:
Leave it to the Republicans to try to make this thing about Kerry. This is a new low in overreaching:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Evangelical_pastor_compares_sex_scandal_to_1103.html
Evangelical pastor compared sex scandal to Kerry
RAW STORY
Published: Friday November 3, 2006
In an interview with KABC shortly after he was accused of having an affair with a gay prostitute and using methamphetamines, Evangelical leader Rev. Ted Haggard denied claims about him made by a male prostitute.
During his appearance, which may be heard below, Haggard compares his sex scandal to the calls on Senator Kerry to apologize for "botching" a joke about the Iraq war.
"We live in a crazy world," Rev. Haggard said, "as you know, John Kerry said some things and we all know he didn't mean what they're saying he meant."
On air, Haggard denied knowing accuser Mike Jones, having ever had gay sex or using any type of illegal drug. It has since been reported that he admitted to his overseers at New Life Church that some of the accusations against him were true.
Fe, unbelievable that they could try to compare Kerry's botched joke (one botched phrase out of one speech out of --what?-- two hundred or more public speeches that he's delivered over the last year?) with Haggard's drug habit and awesome hypocrisy. But Cyrano is right: it won't work this time.: )
cyrano, thanks for bring a smile to my day. Hope to be smiling even more on Tuesday night and Wed morning.
I can see the future...
It's a Sunday morning. All the seats are filled. The New Life Choir begins this morning service with their pastor's favorite anthem:
Young man, there's no need to feel down.
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.
I said, young man, 'cause you're in a new town
There's no need to be unhappy.
Young man, there's a place you can go.
I said, young man, when you're short on your dough.
You can stay there, and I'm sure you will find
Many ways to have a good time.
It's fun to stay at the y-m-c-a.
It's fun to stay at the y-m-c-a.
They have everything for young men to enjoy,
You can hang out with all the boys ...
It's fun to stay at the y-m-c-a.
It's fun to stay at the y-m-c-a.
You can get yourself clean, you can have a good meal,
You can do whatever you feel ...
Young man, are you listening to me?
I said, young man, what do you want to be?
I said, young man, you can make real your dreams.
But you've got to know this one thing!
No man does it all by himself.
I said, young man, put your pride on the shelf,
And just go there, to the y.m.c.a.
I'm sure they can help you today.
It's fun to stay at the y-m-c-a.
It's fun to stay at the y-m-c-a.
They have everything for you men to enjoy,
You can hang out with all the boys ...
It's fun to stay at the y-m-c-a.
It's fun to stay at the y-m-c-a.
You can get yourself clean, you can have a good meal,
You can do whatever you feel ...
Young man, I was once in your shoes.
I said, I was down and out with the blues.
I felt no man cared if I were alive.
I felt the whole world was so jive ...
That's when someone came up to me,
And said, young man, take a walk up the street.
It's a place there called the y.m.c.a.
They can start you back on your way.
It's fun to stay at the y-m-c-a.
It's fun to stay at the y-m-c-a.
They have everything for young men to enjoy,
You can hang out with all the boys ...
It's fun to stay at the y-m-c-a
It's fun to stay at the y-m-c-a
Young man, young man, there's no need to feel down
Young man, young man, pick yourself off the ground
It's fun to stay at y-m-c-a
It's fun to stay at the y-m-c-a
Young man, young man, are you listening to me?
Young man, young man, what do you wanna be?
y-m-c-a
you'll find it at the y-m-c-a
no man, young man, does it all by himself
young man, young man, put your pride on the shelf
Y-m-c-a
then just go to the y-m-c-a
y-m-c-a
young man, young man, i was once in your shoes
y-m-c-a
young man, young man, I said, I was down and out with the blues.
y-m-c-a
I am writing this only as a response to Fe's comments. The focus has to stay on Iraq. Never the less, this whole thing with Kerry actually does help him. As much as the Repubs smear him, the more people will view their fanatical cries as a cheap political stunt. Therefore, those who try to silence him by questioning his support of the military will be made to look even more foolish. I am absolutely confident as well that others who had loathed to think of Kerry as an 08 candidate, will be willing to listen to him after what our country just witnessed (a Karl Rove inspired media mugging).
Just my political two cents - for what they are worth.
I expect as more and more Republicans bring it up (hopefully McCain as well), his popularity will rise. They shot themselves in the foot for a brief news cycle coverage.
Oncall:
You're exactly right.
Notice how QUICKLY Tony Snow tried to plow the Kerry-gaffe story under yesterday? Saying that it was the press's doing?
It is exactly because Democrats were volleying back that BUSH needs to apologize to our soldiers for putting them in continual harm's way in Iraq--with no way out. One meme is cancelling out the other. The joke could not have come in at a better time.
-------------------------------------------------
One more thing about the Haggard situation. (This screenplay continues to write itself):
Haggard admits buying drugs as accuser fails lie detector
Published: Friday November 3, 2006
Influential US evangelist Reverend Ted Haggard has admitted to purchasing illegal drugs from a male prostitute, but denied using them, in an interview with MSNBC.
Haggard also admitted to leaving voice mail messages for the prostitute.
A lie detector test administered to the prostitute leveling the allegations, Michael Jones, 49, on KHOW radio this morning found "deceptions" in his answers.
However, test administrator John Kresnick indicated afterward that he doubted the accuracy of the test, given the stress on Jones is currently under.
Haggard, who news reports say has been consulted by the White House on a weekly basis, resigned Thursday as head of the National Association of Evangelicals, a US umbrella group that claims some 30 million members, after the allegations became public.
He also took a leave of absence as head of his New Life Church in the western state of Colorado, a 14,000-member congregation he founded in a basement.
The scandal comes just days before Colorado voters decide on a measure - supported by Haggard - that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Opposition to gay marriage is a mainstay of the Republican Party's efforts to mobilize its core voters for US Congressional elections on Tuesday, and President George W Bush raised the topic while campaigning this week.
Haggard, a married father of five, has denied claims aired this week by a self-described male escort that the pastor paid him for sex during a three-year affair.
But the Reverend Ross Parsley, who took over as the church's senior pastor, indicated Thursday night that some of the allegations were true.
"There has been some admission of indiscretion, not an admission to all of the material that has been discussed, but there is an admission of some guilt," Parsley told KKTV television.
Parsley said he had no details and that a board of church overseers was investigating the case.
Jones said he went public before the state ballot because he found Haggard's opposition to gay marriage hypocritical.
"I've never had a gay relationship with anybody and I'm steady with my wife," Haggard responded in broadcast remarks. "I'm faithful to my wife."
-----------------------------------------------
Mr. Haggard:
How long while you were faithfully married did you know you were gay?
Wow. Just. Wow.
Haggard comparing his gay sex scandal to Kerry's botched joke about the monstrously low IQ'd Herr Boosh that the Cons twisted into a slam about the troops...?
Now THAT's some stretch of the imagination...!
Wank, wank....
Crystal Meth is a drug that is widely used by a segment of the gay community, specifically as a sexual stimulant. How credible is it that a "straight" pastor would seek to buy it, out of every drug that is available to a person of his income, and coincidentally from a gay prostitute/masseuse? Does this explanation pass your smell test? It doesn't pass mine.
oncall: my Virginia family members told me that Allen's stunt about attacking Webb's book was being poorly received in Richmond as an act of desperation by a US Senator who has been in political office for 20 years with a record and how pathetic that that was all he could talk about. I was skeptical about that perspective until 3 polls came out this week confirming my family's conclusion about Allen and that race.
I bring this analogy up b/c it may just be a national trend when voter's lying eyes show carnage in Iraq on the nightly news and daily reports of Republican scandel voters are now turning on anything that looks like a stunt as an act by a desperate party. While Kerry has been roundly critized, his focuus on the Iraq war during the closing days of this election was right on the mark. His political judgment will give us all an I told you so moment, if we could just teach him how to better deliver a joke.
Hope you had time to read my earlier post about $1.3 million infusion into the Duckworth race.
Well, as I said on the previous thread, I had FAUX news on yesterday for background noise. It angered me, but I do think it never hurts to be aware of how the dark side operates.
They of course play to their base. But they were misrepresenting what was happening with the Kerry story way into yesterday afternoon, long after Kerry had issued his apology. They were still reporting late yesterday afternoon that Kerry still had not apologized, trying to keep the story alive long after MSNBC and CNN had moved along.
They will no doubt twist the Haggart story to their liking for mass distribution. Personally, I wouldn't give this one much mileage, because this man is a pastor, not a politician. If someone were to tie him in with a politician, that would do it.
Just my 3 cents worth.
Mike Jones is about to appear on MSNBC, with Rita Crosby.
truth: this pastor spoke with a pretty significant politician weekly, his name is Bush.
I am not defending the pastor, but I think people need to be quite careful (and it has been.....so far) how they discuss this issue. It is sad (especially for his wife and children) to see a married man with children get caught up in a homosexual sex and drug scandal. Yes the hypocrisy is as evident as Rush Limbaugh's verbal crucifixion of drug addicts, and that is what this topic should remained focus on.
O.K. I am off the soap box.
On second thought, if Haggart admits to buying the crystal meth but claims he threw it out, and admits to contacting Jones for a "massage", my guess is that there is more to this story.
Bring out the bloodhounds. Where there is smoke, there is fire.
Once had a pastor who was sleeping with no less than 17 young single women in the congregation over a 10 month period. My husband and I were on the elder's board. They eventually got all 17 women to come forward during a church service and confront him. That was the end of his ministry.
No one wants a wolf in sheep's clothing "flocking" the sheep.
Jones first discovered "Art" (his client) was Haggart on a History Channel program about the DaVinci Code.
Dear Meester Rove:
We'll have a blue congress without you
We'll be so blue we're voting against you
Decorations of red on a white and blue tree
Won't be the same fear when you're not here to flee
And when the blue voters come calling
And the blue ballots start falling
You'll be fading away with your plans gone astray
And we'll have a blue, blue congress
vote smart vote true vote blue,
Otter
Yet another case of who blue who.
As a criminal defense lawyer I have to admit that claiming that he threw away illegal drugs has never been used as a defense. The criminal statutes really don't care if you actually took or ingested the meth or not, which is really a pathetic defense. The criminal statutes only go to the issue of Possession which is defined as being in under his care and control.If they find drugs in your pocket and then for instance you are seen throwing them out the window or on the ground that in no way makes him any less criminally culpable. Minor little point that Haggart admitted to, from what I have read to possessing meth. That is enough for most district attorneys to prosecute.
You know I am blue.
Just a word of warning, though. The base might take it as a referendum about THEM, and get defensive, and this could backfire.
I think we should keep all cackling to a minimum for that reason.
Posted by: Fe at November 3, 2006 01:48 PM
Everything that's not Clinton's fault is Kerry's fault.. you know the era of responsibility...
Hillary Clinton made Haggard want the Crystal Meth...
Yes she did.
We might as well enjoy Rove's bad luck.
The base doesn't read this anyway. :-D
truth this is no more an attack on Evangelicals then JK on the troops.The criticism is on the hypocrisy of their leaders just as JK's attacks were on Bush and Rumsfelt and their hypocrisy, not the troops. Its all about the hypocrisy of their leaders, not a slight against Evangelicals.
BTW-- silly me... A friend & I were wondering how that same-sex marriage thing got on the ballot here... will have to fill her in. I knew once, but forgot o_O
From CNN:
White House counselor Dan Bartlett on Friday called the revelations "shocking and disgraceful if they turn out to be true. I think it's important that we do find out exactly what it is right and what is wrong here and get to the bottom of it."
*****
I suggest that Bartlett assign Jeff Gannon to investigate...
New Life Church member Brooks DeMio, 44, said he thinks Jones is a liar and can’t believe Haggard would engage in sex with a man.
“He loves the Lord, homosexuality is a sin and that’s not Ted,” DeMio said. “His desire is to serve other people and uphold the word of God. ... I don’t know him well enough to give a complete character description, but I know him enough to know it’s not true.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15536263/page/2/
Oy!
Cyrano, great thread header. Glad to see your wit and wisdom here again.
As for Haggard, well so goes another week in the years-long spiral to the gutter of the Christian right.
Buh-bye!
Bubba,
I know that. I am concerned about the right spinning it into an attack on Evangelicals via their $media$.
I know it is delicious irony because of the hypocracy, but not even so much the hypocracy of the religious right, but the hypocracy of Rove et. al for using the religious right to their own disgraceful end.
We have a big surprise coming for all of you from Arizona...a Democratic State Senator and a Majority Democratic Congressional Delegation....are you ready?
Arizona Congress Watch brings us the news that Pederson is winning the early votes in an absentee ballot sampling. Open that link up and look inside and this it what jumps out and hits you right between the eyes....
"Among these early voters, Jim Pederson is leading Jon Kyl by 4 points: 44% for Pederson compared to 40% for Kyl, with 4% for other candidates and 12% refused."
This is incredibly significant and shows that dissatisfied Republicans who cannot bring themselves to vote for the former head of the Democratic Party in this State, are also forming a significant block of protest voters, and this could very well spell the end of Senator Jon Kyl's rubber stamping of George W. Bush policies in Iraq.
All American people can understand and honor the sacrifices that our military men and women make for us every day, but the vast majority of American's will not stand idly by and allow them to die for a lie.
I will publicly say that for those 12% of Republican voters who are refusing to make a selection for Senator based upon principle. God Bless you. God Bless you.
Haggard bought... but didn't use. He got a massage, but didn't engage in sex with a male....
Oooooookaaaaay..... Well, if you believe Haggard, I have this bridge in Fallujah to sell ya....
This is ALL about the fundie religious reich, their major hypocrisy, their wildly willful blind devotion to the neoCon Republican party, since they claim to be "Boosh's Base."
If Haggard was a straight man who was faithful to his wife and loved his kids, he would never have bought meth, never have allowed another man to give him a massage (or whatever he plans on calling it)... and, thus, would never have been caught in his web of LIES.
The next story to be released on this reich-wingnuttia sexual soap opera will likely be that he's checking himself into some kind of rehab (addiction to sex, drugs, alcohol, or all three).
I will continue to grin gleefully. Since Haggard obviously didn't care about his family, why should I? This is all about him and his hypocrisy. He deserves whatever negative publicity he gets.
If the Dems do win on Nov. 7 (in spite of rigged e-voting machines), I will also start to giggle, guffaw, and gloat - gleefully...! True, I'll hold off until after the results are in because I truly do expect e-voting machines to be hacked into and some kind of e-voting snafu and maybe court boondoggles....
But for the immediate moment, I'm just grateful to the hypocritical religious reich... the gift that keeps on giving us neoCon scandals (every time they do, they just prove my opinion of them)....
{grin}
There's a pretty good one down here in Arizona, but I'm not so sure it would be a good idea to put this guy and Tom Foley in the same facility.
In Iraq, Bechtel is pulling out, being replaced by a group under Dan Quayle's hedge fund? o_O
Posted by: aimzzz at November 3, 2006 06:01 PM
Do the Mashed Potato!
Haggard on his opposition to gay marriage:
"Why buy the cow when you can rent the milk by the hour".
Tomorrow's Colorado Springs Headline
"No Happy Ending for Pastor Haggard"
rimshot
Richard Perle is blaming Bush for failure in Iraq? For not handling disloyalty and incompetency in the ranks well? This is so bizarre - Perle is one of the neocons behind the whole mess in the first place.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6190571,00.html
For review, look for Perle philosophies at http://www.newamericancentury.org - he is one of the Founding Fathers of the neocons.
It hasn't been that long since Richard Perle was head of Rummy's special board of directors at the Pentagon...
"Why buy the cow when you can rent the milk by the hour".
Posted by: Cyrano at November 3, 2006 06:14 PM
Cyrano:
I love you you sick puppy.
Haggard bought... but didn't use. He got a massage, but didn't engage in sex with a male....
Posted by: NonnyO at November 3, 2006 05:16 PM
Now now Nonny:
Remember Clinton didn't inhale either.
(And by the way, his "non-inhaling" ;-) was an endearing point for me.)
We must restore trust in nation's election system
Confidence in American elections is so low our democracy is at risk. Trust, coupled with checks and balances, is essential if we are to have credible voting results. Unfortunately, that combination is lacking.
On Nov. 7, this shortcoming may result in a nightmare for our country. Every seat in the U.S. Congress is up for grabs, at the same time faith in the election systems across the country has evaporated. The political parties have played havoc with our election systems, and the American public recognizes that.
(snip)
The first step to take our elections back from the private corporations is for voters of all ages and political parties to turn out at the polls in crushing numbers to show they care about democracy.
The next step is for citizens to demand the computerized voting machines be scrapped and that there be a return to a transparent system that is trusted, one that includes paper ballots.
The natural question is, who is responsible for the selloff of our elections to corporations?
Congressman Bob Ney, R-Ohio, served as chief architect of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which should have been titled the "Let's Sell Off American Elections to Corporations Act." Ney, who became the first lawmaker to admit wrongdoing in the Jack Abramoff scandal, fought off any attempt to have paper records.
Confidence in elections has spiraled down ever since the passage of HAVA. The goal was to implement paperless computerized voting machines nationwide by 2006. However, as public transparency decreased and voter outrage increased, this plan fell short in many states, including Washington state.
Hundreds of thousands of cases of election irregularities and other problems have been documented, including:
• In North Carolina, 4,500 votes were lost because voting-machine companies provided storage drives that were too small.
• In Alaska, voting-machine companies argued in court that voting data belongs to them and not the public.
• In Iowa, several primary races were flipped because corporate technicians programmed the machines incorrectly.
• In Gahanna County, Ohio, 4,258 votes for George Bush were recorded in the 2004 election, even though only 638 total ballots were cast.
Furthermore, voting machines are less regulated nationwide than slot machines in casinos.
And computerized voting machines can be easily rigged, demonstrated at Princeton labs in a test known as the "Princeton hack."
Computerized voting machines running secret software and secret vote counting controlled by private corporations are both undemocratic and extremely unpopular with the American public.
An Aug. 12 Zogby poll of 1,200 likely voters nationwide revealed that 92 percent support the public's right to witness ballot counting, something that is impossible with computerized machines.
Contributing to the decline in our elections are the partisan election officials themselves, who are becoming more linked with the voting-machine companies. Election officials are telling the public that voting machines are perfectly safe to use — while the political parties are promoting absentee voting, which bypasses the voting machines!
While the bad news seems pretty bad, change is coming. Candidates are starting to include election integrity in their campaign messages, realizing that having 92 percent of Americans agreeing with you on an issue is a good thing.
Former Republican Clint Curtis, who is now running as a Democrat in Florida's 24th Congressional District, is one of the first candidates to make voting integrity a central issue. Curtis testified under oath before Congress that he was instructed to write vote-flipping software several years ago. Such software would be easy to hide from public officials.
How ironic that the U.S. destroyed the dictatorship in Iraq and gave the Iraqis a better system of voting than we have in America today.
Take the first step in fixing our elections by voting and getting your friends to vote. After the dust settles, the people of America must unite to make our elections transparent and trusted once again.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2003339320&zsection_id=268883724&slug=borkowski03&date=20061103
Richard Borkowski of Seattle is a computer professional and blogs about voting issues at stopcomputerizedvoting.blogspot.com/
From http://www.startribune.com/562/story/786869.html
Ann Coulter is about law and order. Unless, of course, she's the one under investigation. Allegedly, when she isn't calling into question Bill Clinton's sexual orientation or claiming that 9/11 widows are having a grand old time, the conservative pundit is committing voter fraud. Palm Beach County is investigating reports that Coulter knowingly voted in the wrong precinct in February. Coulter isn't cooperating with the probe, so it is going to be turned over to the Florida state attorney's office. If convicted, Coulter could face five years in prison. Hey, Ann, a bottle of peroxide in the big house costs four packs of smokes.
irc anyone?
If you aren't too tired after the election, here's another battle to fight. I can't understand why , when you think things are taken care of by the courts, thye keep being brought up again. Surely separate but equal shouldn't be back again in the 21st century!
http://www.bamn.com/brownmarch2006/
Posted by: KerryDemocrat at November 3, 2006 06:44 PM
Another headline....
Haggard in a Thticky Meth
Wow! A few faces in the irc. Join us everyone.
I can not believe how many MoveOn phone parties are scheduled. I can not believe how many election watching parties are scheduled. Within 30 miles of my zip code - scroll, scroll, scroll. Call, call, call. Party party party like it's 1994 only hopefully reversal of party in charge of Congress.
Wow
Posted by: not my neocon at November 3, 2006 06:54 PM
Interesting article posted by not my neocon. Any relation to not my president? Perle doesn't argue with the policy. He blames Condoleeza Rice for the failuire. Rats are jumping as far from the ship as they possibly can.
Hey All:
Keep the faith! GOTV 2006!
Chuck in Houston
This is really fishy.
Duckworth's war experience not what VFW looking for in 6th District
Duckworth, who lost her legs when her helicopter was shot down over Iraq, said she never had a chance to apply for the endorsement and called it “sad and regrettable. One suburban veteran and Duckworth supporter called it "despicable."
To be shunned by this organization is beyond my scope" said Mike McConnell, a Vietnam veteran from Winfield who said he received the Purple Heart.
Roskam said the national endorsement was based on the recommendation by a few 6th District VFW leaders. The only one he named was Soden, a former head of the Illinois VFW who was appointed to fill out former Republican Senate President James Pate” Philip’s term in 2003.
Buttice said Soden sits on the national VFW’s political action committee board but had surgery Friday and was unavailable.
Bill Bahr, No. 2 in leadership at the Bloomingdale VFW post who backs Duckworth, said neither he nor his post’s leader were approached in any way about an endorsement in the race.
Roskam often tried to answer questions directed at Buttice and several times declined to say when he found out about the endorsement before finally saying “this week.
Roskam also said he doesn’t fear a backlash among 6th District voters over how the endorsement was arrived at.
On a conference call to promote Duckworth Friday, a Democratic group named VoteVets.org presented war hero and former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, who blasted the VFW endorsement.
“If any national veterans group does not endorse Tammy Duckworth, they should be ashamed of themselves,” Kerrey said. “They have some explaining to do to their membership because Tammy will be a leading voice in the U.S. Congress for veterans.
http://www.dailyherald.com/story.asp?id=246267
Friedman's message to voters to tell Bush that we are not stupid, would apply to that faux endorsement. Maybe its naive to believe that voters see through these Republican stunts which are ending up hurting the candidate pushing them. It sunk Allen and hopefully the 6th District is intelligent enough to understand how utterly ridiculous that endorsement is. Just seems like this is the kind of year oncall that whatever the Republicans do is seen as cynical.
Denial Dick will on This Week with his latest version of 'stay the course' on Sunday and meanwhile the Military Times Media Group is busting out an OP/ED calling for Rummy to go - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=4641
It just keeps getting better every day!
Hey KerryDemocrat, great news from AZ!
Haggard hit the news in Oz tonight (Saturday). They compared him with a few other "fallen" church television performers. Funny how they only come close to admitting it when sprung, huh? It raised laughter more than anything.
November 4, 2006
Minister Admits Buying Drug but Denies Tryst
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and NEELA BANERJEE
After denying that he had ever met a gay escort who claimed to have had a three-year sexual relationship with him, the Rev. Ted Haggard admitted yesterday that he had summoned the escort to give him a massage in a Denver hotel room and bought methamphetamine from him.
But Mr. Haggard, one of the nation’s leading evangelical ministers, maintained that the two men never had sex and that he threw out the drugs without using them.
“I never kept it very long because it was wrong,” Mr. Haggard said, smiling grimly and submitting to questions from a television reporter as he pulled out of his driveway yesterday, his wife, Gayle, silent in the passenger seat. “I was tempted, I bought it, but I never used it.”
Mr. Haggard’s explanation came two days after the male escort, Michael Jones, stepped forward to claim that Mr. Haggard was a monthly client for the last three years. On Thursday, Mr. Haggard had resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and stepped down as pastor of his 14,000-member Colorado Springs megachurch, pending an independent investigation of the accusations.
The escort failed a lie detector test on Friday that he had volunteered to take, but the man who administered the test said the results might have been skewed because Mr. Jones had slept little and was suffering from a migraine. Mr. Jones insisted he was telling the truth and said he would take another lie detector test.
Mr. Haggard’s difficulties are bound to echo beyond his own church, especially on the eve of the midterm elections. He is at the center of several intersecting evangelical power circles and has ties to the Bush administration.
- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/04/us/04minister.html
Posted by: Matthew Carnicelli at November 4, 2006 07:37 AM
We need to find out the ties to all the Repubicans too.
The Times piece is fairly interesting, in that it fleshes out our portrait of Haggard.
Apparently, he is much more moderate than more traditional evangelicals - and he also did not oppose the Colorado ballot initiative that would have given homosexuals some protections under State law. He also refused, when a flap emerged about the participation of a chorus from a gay church in a worship service, to dis-invite them - as was demanded by several other congregations.
You can interpret these last two situations in any number of ways - one of which would include Haggard attempting to come to grips with his own sexuality, if through a glass, darkly.
Don't get so lost in the Haggard scandal that you miss important information that came out about security breaches in this regime.
georgia10 has a good diary about the nuclear weapons website disclosure that the NYTimes broke yesterday:
"This stuff ought to be out. Put this stuff out."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/3/22442/6271
susang has a diary about another security breach from Los Alamos lab...
ANOTHER Nuclear Security Breach on the GOP Watch
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/3/194522/180
As susang says in her diary summary, "And this is the party that claims to keep this country safe? Boot 'em. Boot 'em all."
Wendy From Oz,
We're delighted to have you interacting with us via the DCP blog. Your perspective on political happenings in America is particularly interesting to us here because you live in a country so far removed from our own.
What was it like growing up in place whose two most dominant socio-political models, Great Britain and the United States, are located in a different hemisphere and on opposite sides of the globe from you? How relevant and/or irrelevant is what happens to us here to what happens where you live? How strange and surreal does our perplexing bread-and-circuses electronic media seem to you at home there in Tasmania? How is it that you've come to feel sufficiently invested in and influenced by the often-bizarre panoply of American politics that you're as aware of its inner workings as you obviously are?
Do tell, woz. Inquiring otters want to know.
shrubiana delenda est,
Otter
WHITHaggard was one of a group of religious leaders who regularly participated in conference calls with White House aides, Time magazine reported.
On Friday, the White House sought to downplay Haggard's influence within the administration.
Spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters Friday that it was inaccurate to portray him as being close to the White House, insisting Haggard was only an occasional participant in weekly conference calls between West Wing staff and leading evangelicals.
"He has been on a couple of calls," Fratto said. "He's been to the White House one or two times."
WHITEHOUSE IN DENIAL, Haggard brags that he speaks to Bush every day in news clip.
Posted by: madame defarge at November 4, 2006 08:29 AM
I agree with you. Of course the mud can fly--as it will; however, I'd like to see this National Security mud stick more. Afterall, it's only been 50 years of brainwashing that the Democratic Party has to overcome.
Interesting article here about negative ads and their effect on people.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20061103/ap_on_sc/political_ads_science
Interesting morning news
Jobs apparently up but figures were revised, yet Chrysler has 50 percent of its 2006 inventory sitting on the lot. This is a direct spinoff of a downturn in the housing market and the average age of the national fleet of cars is growing older. I suspect tampering with OPEC/gas prices and with employment figures in the run up to the election that does not reflect the underlying reality.
Analysts believe a Dem Congress would make it less likely we'd go to war with Iran and more likely we'd have a bipartisan push to get us out of Iraq. Chances are Rumsfeld would go, as all four branches of the military are advocating at the upper echelons.
Kuo believes grave damage has been done to the cause of Jesus - by hypocrites within the church.
& the BBC has 3 ideas about what evangelicals should tell their children about Pastor Ted. I vote for number 3.
http://bbsnews.net/article.php/20061103235441247
Another portent - my Republican Uncle is now cc'ing news stories to the wife of a former Republican Governor and Presidential Candidate, Harold Stassen. He was a Baptist and friend of my family, and did march with Martin Luther King. You can bet these two are not happy with the status quo.
Hmm.
CBSnews.com has this posted on their website at:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/03/opinion/main2151871.shtml
Y'know, I'm not sure which side (of the three) should be the more indignantly offended ones here. Apparently the author is an equal-opportunity insulter. Than which there are things worse, of course. This close to the end of the longest and nastiest mid-term election campaign in living memory, maybe every body on every side could stand being reminded to lighten TFU a little.
---------------
Al Qaeda In Iraq's Campaign Meeting:
Abu Hamza al-Muhajir Rallies The Troops Before Election Day
Thank you, righteous soldiers, for coming. I hate to start off our last meeting on a downer, but I was watching Fox News the other day and I saw Dick Cheney talking about our efforts to use violence to sway the U.S. election. If I find out that anyone tipped him off to our plans, heads are going to roll. Literally.
Moving on, I'm sure you've seen John Kerry is once again trying to blow this thing for us. Frankly, we never should've endorsed him in 2004 — he was Zarqawi's guy. I would have gone with the screamer, but as they say, "hindsight's 50/50." What's that? Yes, I know it's supposed to be "20/20." I was being ironic. Just because we're in a religious-ideological struggle to take over the world doesn't mean we can't have a sense of humor.
We need to churn out some Kerry damage control, pronto. Our exit polls tell us it's not as bad as it looks. I'm thinking a couple IEDs should do the trick. If it comes back for another news cycle, we can consider lobbing some shells into the Green Zone or a mosque bombing.
My operatives on the ground tell me we, I mean the Democrats (let's not forget, they're infidels, too), will take the House. But you can count on Karl Rove to play his trump card late, so let's be vigilant. We're getting safer, but we're not yet safe.
In the Senate we have problems. Zogby and common sense tell me Harold Ford is in trouble in Tennessee. The good news is Arizona may be coming into play. Who do we have working on sabotaging the Kyl campaign? Nobody? Are you kidding me!? Come on guys, we need to step it up. How do you expect to foment an entire civil war if you can't even manipulate a few congressional races? Hey, you in the front row with the beard. Not you, the guy next to you. You're now the point person for the Arizona Senate race. If you do this right, I'll bump you to No. 1 on the martyr list, so don't screw it up.
If the GOP starts to gain ground in the House, then we go to our final option. I hold in my hand a copy of a salacious and, might I add, very poetic e-mail exchange between our supreme leader and Miss Jenna Bush. What's that? No, it's not real. Do you really think Osama has an AOL account?
Funny story, Zawahiri was telling me he was cracking up watching Osama dot all the 'i's with little hearts. I was sworn to secrecy, so that little anecdote doesn't leave this room. I'd like to keep my internal organs on the inside of my body, thank you very much.
To wrap things up, I know everyone is tired — but you can rest Wednesday morning after, Allah willing, we send victory fruit baskets to Nancy Pelosi and Teddy Kennedy. If we can pull this off, we may just be able to bring the well-oiled machine of governance in Washington to a grinding halt. Remember, we need to attack them over there so we don't have to fight them here in our adopted home. And by the way, there are coffee and pastries in the back. Please, just one per warrior.
(Political humor by CBSNews.com's Mike Wuebben)
--------------------
now go out and get down with your inner donkies out there,
Otter
Papers sold to military: ‘Rumsfeld must go’
Editorial comes days after Bush affirms defense secretary’s job security
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 12:38 a.m. ET Nov 4, 2006
Just days after President Bush publicly affirmed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's job security through the end of his term, a family of publications catering to the military will publish an editorial calling for the defense secretary's removal.
The editorial, released to NBC News on Friday ahead of its Monday publication date, stated, "It is one thing for the majority of Americans to think Rumsfeld has failed. But when the nation's current military leaders start to break publicly with their defense secretary, then it is clear that he is losing control of the institution he ostensibly leads."
The editorial will appear just one day before the midterm election, in which GOP candidates have been losing ground, according to recent polls.
"This is not about the midterm elections," continued the editorial, which will appear in the Army Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times, and Marine Corps Times on Monday. "Regardless of which party wins Nov. 7, the time has come, Mr. President, to face the hard bruising truth: Donald Rumsfeld must go."
The newspapers are part of the Military Times Media Group, a subsidiary of the Gannett Co., Inc. The publications are sold to service members and their families.
On Wednesday, Bush had said he wants Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney to remain in his administration until the end of his presidency, extending a vote of confidence to two of the most-criticized members of his team.
In the same interview, Bush said he did not foresee a change in the immediate future in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. He said that U.S. generals have assured him that "they've got what they can live with."
Democrats and Republicans alike have called for Rumsfeld's resignation, arguing he has mishandled the war in Iraq, where more than 2,800 members of the U.S. military have died since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. Cheney has faced sharp criticism for his hard-line views and is viewed favorably by only about a third of Americans in polls. Bush said that "both those men are doing fantastic jobs and I strongly support them."
Bush credited Rumsfeld with overseeing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while overhauling the military. "I'm pleased with the progress we're making," the president said. He replied in the affirmative when asked if he wanted Rumsfeld and Cheney to stay with him until the end.
The military publications' editorial also painted a grim view of the situation in Iraq, saying, "despite the best efforts of American trainers, the problem of molding a viciously sectarian population into anything resembling a force for national unity has become a losing proposition. For two years, American sergeants, captains and majors training the Iraqis have told their bosses that Iraqi troops have no sense of national identity, are only in it for the money, don't show up for duty and cannot sustain themselves. … And all along, Rumsfeld has assured us that things are well in hand."
War supporters reconsider
Also Friday, several conservatives who pushed for the invasion of Iraq said they would not have supported a war if they knew how poorly the Bush administration would handle it, according to Vanity Fair magazine.
"I think now I probably would have said, 'No, let's consider other strategies for dealing with the thing that concerns us most, which is Saddam (Hussein) supplying weapons of mass destruction to terrorists,"' said Richard Perle, who sat on the Pentagon's Defense Policy Advisory Committee until 2004.
Kenneth Adelman, who served on the Defense Policy Board with Perle, said Bush, Defense Rumsfeld and others in the administration "turned out to be among the most incompetent teams in the postwar era. Not only did each of them, individually, have enormous flaws, but together they were deadly, dysfunctional."
Violence in Iraq has continued to climb, with dozens of bodies reportedly found around Baghdad on Friday. Shiites and Sunnis alike fear a reprisal in violent crime when Saddam's trial verdict is announced, which could be as soon as Sunday.
In the editorial, the military papers quote Army Gen. John Abizaid, chief of U.S. Central Command, as saying to a Senate Armed Services Committee in September, "I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I've seen it ... and that if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move towards a civil war."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15552211/
Posted by: monkey at November 4, 2006 12:39 PM
Hmmm...what troops are going to buy the last weeks b.s. after reading this?!! And after hearing Bush re-affirm that Rummy stays!
I can't help wondering why Bush isn't dropping Rummy like a hot coal. I think it's something Rummy knows.
Bill Maher says it all in this video, NO HOLDS BARRED.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x2919
I can't help wondering why Bush isn't dropping Rummy like a hot coal. I think it's something Rummy knows.
Posted by: sparrow at November 4, 2006 01:52 PM
___________________________________________________________________
Because he is stupid and lazy. That's my take on it, Too lazy to do the work to get a new Sec'y of Defense and too stupid to know he needs one. The guy lives in a bubble and listens to Cheney - the guy who has an devilish relationship with Rumsfeld.
Posted by: oncall at November 4, 2006 02:00 PM
So you don't think Rummy has secrets he's hiding?
BTW...more calls this afternoon for me. Party tonight. BUT if anyone wants to set up a visitation schedule in the IRC, I'm game. Afterall, I think we all need a stress buster from all these saving the world activities.
I'll be in the IRC tomorrow whenever anyone names a time.
But in the meantime--calling Kay---want me to come out to Ohio on Tuesday to help you GOTV? Send me a pm in the forum.
"You're a bleeding heart-liberal!"
Why, yes, I am. Thank you very much.
"You hate George Bush and eveything he stands for!"
Why, yes, I do. Thank you very much.
"Your kind wants to raise our taxes!"
You're right, we do. Thank you very much.
"You think queers should be allowed to marry!"
Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. Thank you.
"You're not even a decent Christian!"
No, I'm not. I'm not even a Christian, period. Thank you.
"You don't support our troops in Iraq!"
No, I don't. I support our troops out of Iraq instead. Thank you.
"You'd vote for a yellow dog before you'd vote for a Republican!"
Yes, I would. This year I most certainly would.
So would a growing majority of my fellow citizens.
And they wouldn't feel that way without you.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
so vote it be,
Otter
Wait, I thought yellow dogs WERE Republicans... or did I miss the memo on what they're being called this week?
101 Damnations
So you don't think Rummy has secrets he's hiding?
Posted by: suz at November 4, 2006 02:09 PM
__________________________________________________________________
Sure Rumsfeld knows some dirt on Bush, but the whole country knows Bush is an incompetent fool. So no matter what Rumsfeld knows or says, the country will not be surprised when Rumsfeld stabs Bush in the back. People will be very upset when our worst suspicions are confirmed, but I dont't think there is a damn thing that Rumsfeld can shock anybody with when it comes to our worthless President.
Posted by: Otter at November 4, 2006 03:29 PM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x2919
Power shift or not, Senate less likely to back war
WASHINGTON (AP) -- No matter which party wins control, the new Senate is likely to be less supportive of President Bush on Iraq than the present one, and remain relatively conservative on economic and social issues.
In battleground races, Democrats are sounding a lot like traditional Republicans, emphasizing family values, budget restraint and foreign policy. Some Republicans are sounding more like Democrats as they play down their past support for the Iraq war and distance themselves from an unpopular president.
It's made for some unusual midterm political dynamics.
The current crop of Democratic challengers, particularly in closely contested races, bears little resemblance to yesterday's Great Society liberals.
For instance:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/03/senate.dynamics.ap/index.html
Posted by: oncall at November 4, 2006 04:03 PM
How sad.
To think that those arrogant buffoons are slimey enough to insist they have been right on Iraq all along until the Democrats have to take the war out of Iraq themselves.
Then the sons-a-b's will no doubt say America is not safe because we pulled out of Iraq. Wouldn't even be surprised to see some faux "terrorist" activity on the television. I expect Rove to play the fear card over, and over, and O-V-E-R.
Really is sad.
On a lighter note, I suppose we ARE going to have a celebration cocktail party in the IRC election night, no?
BYOB.
Madame Defarge and Monkey gonna be bartenders?
"I can't help wondering why Bush isn't dropping Rummy like a hot coal. I think it's something Rummy knows."
Bush will never admit he was wrong about anything. If he fires Rummy, he is admitting he is wrong and everyone else is right.
U.S. seeks silence on secret CIA prisons
Court is asked to bar detainees from talking about interrogations
The Bush administration has told a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in secret CIA prisons should not be allowed to reveal details of the "alternative interrogation methods" that their captors used to get them to talk.
The government says in new court filings that those interrogation methods are now among the nation's most sensitive national security secrets and that their release -- even to the detainees' own attorneys -- "could reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage." Terrorists could use the information to train in counter-interrogation techniques and foil government efforts to elicit information about their methods and plots, according to government documents submitted to U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton on Oct. 26.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15539945/
If you can stomach it. Here is Cheney telling Stephanopoulos why Bushco will continue with their plans in Iraq, why the American people are wrong......etc, etc..
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x2671
Madame Defarge and Monkey gonna be bartenders?
Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at November 4, 2006 04:17 PM
I don't know about monkey, but I'm going to need a few stiff drinks to make it through the night. Are bartenders allowed to drink & serve?
If I'm not at my candidate's VICTORY party, I'll be in the IRC.
Been out canvassing for GOTV most of the day & plan to do the same tomorrow. So much nervous energy inside right now because of this election. The outcome feels way more critical than ever...
Look at this picture...... the enthusiasm is contagious (just like meningitis).
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15557264/site/newsweek/
Cell phonin' it in...no door to door canvassing today for me. Got two Duckworth's at the front door, a taped call from Roskam and a taped call from Blagojevich. Felt like Halloween.
Ok folks...
I'm off to do my civic duty.
I'm on my way to a belated Halloween Party. The theme is "Politically Incorrect."
So I'm politically in correct but going correctly as an..ummm...an e-voting machine.
I am a E-voting machine.
My e-voting machine says, "Welcome! Push my button."
"Bush"
"Kerry"
Screen two:
"You have voted for George W. Bush. If this is not correct go back to the home page."
Next screen:
"You have voted for George W. Bush. If not correct then press 'here.' If you voted for John Kerry exit to the right."
Next screen.
"Thank you for voting for George W. Bush."
The back side has more but I have to leave.
I hope my friends aren't too offended.
I resisted wearing my "Bush the Pinochio President" t-shirt and instead am wearing an American flag shirt.
If you don't see me again. It's because they've stolen Democracy there too. (Um...killed me!)
It's Always Darkest, Right Before ... It Goes Completely Black
By Phil Rockstroh
While I harbor little affection for nor feel any affinity with the corrupt establishment of the Democratic Party, I don't believe, as is the case with the present leadership of the Republican party, they're a klavern of insane, death-smitten apocalypticists. However, I do believe that a craven desire for power and privilege has transformed them into morally bankrupt, lickspittle, corporate stooges.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article15480.htm
{*Must read.* For the artistically-inclined, the graphic is as frightening as the words in the article.}
As Vote Nears, Parties Prepare for Legal Fights
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/110406Y.shtml
Several days from what Republican and Democratic campaign strategists expect to be a close election, the legal machinery of a messy fight is shifting into high gear as both parties begin sending their largest concentrations of lawyers to states with the tightest races like Maryland, Missouri, Ohio and Tennessee.
Excerpt:
Washington - A team of lawyers for the Democratic Party has been arguing with postal officials in Columbus, Ohio, trying to persuade them to process thousands of absentee ballots that have arrived with insufficient postage.
In Pennsylvania, the Republican Party has opened a "recount account" and set aside $500,000 to pay lawyers who will answer telephones on Election Day and monitor polls to see whether officials demand proper voters' identification. In Maryland, lawyers representing candidates for senator and governor from both parties met recently and swapped cellphone numbers and e-mail addresses to smooth out the logistics of potential litigation.
Several days from what Republican and Democratic campaign strategists expect to be a close election, the legal machinery of a messy fight is shifting into high gear.
Democrats say they are most concerned that voters will be prevented from voting by long lines or poll workers' demanding unnecessary forms of identification.
Republicans say they are guarding against ineligible people trying to vote.
{More on link.}
~~~~~~~~~~~
Insufficient postage?!? Didn't anyone think to make the ballots 'postage paid,' just like hundreds of ad envelopes that arrive at my mailbox every year? Postage paid stamps can't be that expensive or ad agencies wouldn't do it.
The last two paragraphs on the above excerpt say it all (for me). Cons don't want people to vote....
The Election Farce
By David Pérez
The only reason the Democratic Party is against the fiasco in Iraq is because the U.S. is losing the war. It’s all about “bad planning,” or “bad timing,” or whatever. If Bush and Co. had easily subjugated the nation and controlled the oil fields, the entire U.S. ruling class and their paid politicians would be joyous.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/aticle15484.htm
"Hey America, Stop your Bellyaching and get to Work"
By Mike Whitney
What can we expect in the midterm elections? The real question is: What should we NOT expect in the elections. We should not expect dramatic change from our present trajectory. Whether Karl Rove engineers another electoral-coup or not, is beside the point. The system has been reshaped to meet the needs and aspirations of the ruling mandarins.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article15487.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6115810.stm
Abu Ghraib man's Iraq tour halted
The US military has reversed plans to return a soldier to Iraq who had been convicted of abusing an inmate at the country's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.
Santos Cardona, 32, had reached Kuwait with his unit when news of his planned redeployment to Iraq emerged.
The US army dog handler was convicted in June of using his dog to abuse an inmate at the prison near Baghdad.
He was sentenced to 90 days' hard labour, demoted one rank and had his pay docked by a military court.
Specialist Cardona was ordered back to his unit's home base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, "where he will be assigned duties commensurate with his military occupation speciality and rank," the army said in a statement.
{{{Hmmmm.... I'd suggest that he was recalled for fear that if it was discovered he only got a 90 day sentence for his crimes at Abu Ghraib and was sent back to Iraq, he might not emerge from there alive.... Why only a 90 day jail term, demotion, and pay docked? Seems like an awfully light sentence....}}}
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e07uIcQMFlE&eurl=
I am outraged by this. He doesn't care about the troops, He never cared about the troops. He never stood up for what was right......I want that up tight snob to apologize immediately......blah, blah, blah, blah.
Supreme Court to Hear Major Abortion Case Next Week
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/110406X.shtml
The first nationwide ban on a specific abortion procedure faces US Supreme Court scrutiny next week.
The Consequences of the Death of Empathy
By Robert Jensen
One of the most devastating consequences of unearned privilege -- both for those of us on top and, for very different reasons, those who suffer beneath -- is the death of empathy.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article15491.htm
American Prison Planet
The Bush Administration as Global Jailor
By Nick Turse
The American gulag is so much more than Guantanamo and so much worse. The combination of U.S. "homeland" prisons, where "one in 140 Americans, or as many people as live in Namibia, or nearly five Luxembourgs" are locked away, the offshore imperial detention facilities, the shadowy CIA black sites, and the ever-shifting outsourced detention facilities operated by other nations adds up to something new in history -- the makings of a veritable American prison planet.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article15495.htm
William Rivers Pitt | You're Kidding Me, Right?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/110306R.shtml
Will Pitt, stunned by the revelation that the Bush administration put nuclear weapons details on a web site, puts it in context for us: "Translation: On the three-year anniversary of the catastrophic decision to invade and occupy Iraq, Congressional Republicans, terrified that their comprehensive failures would come back to haunt them in the November midterms, cajoled the White House into publishing incredibly sensitive information in a rhetorically empty attempt to cover their backsides."
UPDATED: MEGA-CHURCH PREACHER TED HAGGARD ADMITS TO "SOME INDISCRETIONS" [VIDEO]
By Joshua Holland
Using the services of a gay prostitute or smoking meth?
Updated: admits to "massage"; says he bought drugs but didn't use them.
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/43849/
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Scroll down on the comments section to the one labeled Haggard by blogger FedUp...
"Haggard... admitted to some of the allegations: he sucked but he didn't swallow.
Bless his heart! "
I'm still laughing! :-)
Posted by: suz at November 4, 2006 06:06 PM
People will love it Suz. Sounds great.
NonnyO:
He did not have slurps with that man.
there's methedrine to his madness,
Otter
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6107062.stm
Profile: Nancy Pelosi
If the Democrats make major gains in next week's elections, Nancy Pelosi stands to become the first woman to serve as US speaker.
Excerpt (more on link):
She has, however, ruled out attempting to impeach President George W Bush, as some in her party have suggested.
There are those within the Democrat camp who question whether she may prove too liberal for the moderates they hope to win over in the mid-term elections.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While I'd dearly love to see a woman as the Speaker of the House, the suggestion that she's too liberal is bogus. Since she has taken impeachment proceedings off the table - if she becomes the new Speaker - she's much, much too conservative! Her hubby's company also benefits from the Iraq war. Those two things alone make Pelosi a DINO, and not much different from Hillary.
Still, I'd love to see Pelosi as Speaker, if only to watch the rightwingnuttia Cons froth at the mouth.... The Cons, and the rightwingnuttia media who have so fervently promoted that fiasco of an unconstitutional and illegal war in Iraq, are the ones who mention, without fail, weekly, on political yak shows every Sunday, the possibility of Hillary becoming president. Hillary is much too conservative and too pro-Iraq-war for progressive Dems, and they won't vote for her.
Pelosi, as third in line for president if she can be talked into not stopping any of the other Reps from proceeding with impeachment proceedings, could become president.... and THAT thought alone has the kool-aid drinking rightwingnuttia Con's knickers in a knot.... Hahahahahaha.....
Posted by: NonnyO at November 4, 2006 06:10 PM
Thanks for the pick me up Nonny. It really brightened up my day. ;-)
Posted by: Otter at November 4, 2006 06:22 PM
No, of course he didn't....
And I have a bridge for sale; I can even come up with an historically accurate provenance...
Posted by: oncall at November 4, 2006 06:27 PM
Velbekomme...!
We all needed that! ;-)
Posted by: Otter at November 4, 2006 06:22 PM
Actually, I'm still waiting for the tearful mea culpa and/or Haggard volunteering to go into a rehab program for addictions of some kind, since he'll have to blame someone else because he got caught being a closet gay guy.
He can't blame Clinton unless he can make knee-girl into a gay man in a blue dress....
A transcript of Bill Maher's "New Rules For Democrats"
1. When they say Democrats will raise taxes, you say,
"We have to. Because someone spent all the money in the world cutting Paris Hilton's taxes and not killing Osama bin Laden. In just 6 years, the national debt has doubled. You can't keep spending money you don't take in -- that's not even elementary economics, that's just called 'Don't Be Michael Jackson.'"
2. When they say the terrorists want the Democrats to win, you say:
"Are you insane? George Bush has been a terrorist's wet dream! He inflames radical hatred against America, and then run on offering to protect us from it. It's like a a guy throwing shit on you, and then offering to protect you from the flies."
3. When they say cut and run, or defeat-o-crat, you say:
"Bush lost the war. Period. All this nonsense about 'the violence is getting worse over there because they're trying to influence the election' -- no, it's getting worse because you drew up the post-war plans on the back of a cocktail napkin on Applebee's! And of course Democrats WANT to win, but that's impossible now that you've ethnically cleansed the place by making it unliveable. Just like you did with New Orleans."
4. When they say that actual combat veterans like John Kerry are denigrating the troops, you say:
"You are completely full of shit." Remember when Al Gore caught all that flak for sighing and moaning during the debate? Yeah, don't do that -- just say, "You are full of shit. If I was a troop, the support I would want back home would mainly come in the form of people pressuring Washington to get me out of this pointless nightmare. That's how I would feel supported."
5. When they say Democrats are obstructionists, you say:
"You're welcome. Sometimes good people have to intercede to prevent dire consequences. You wouldn't like to think of ME as an obstructionist, but what if Roseanne had offered to sing? So I would be happy to frame this debate as a fight between the obstructionists and the enablers." There's your talking point: "Vote Republican and you vote to enable George Bush to keep ruling as an emperor. A retarded child emperor, but an emperor."
So Democrats, you've got four days to get out there and CLOSE. And it's not about slogans this time -- although when it comes to slogans, the only one I am prepared to accept from the opposition is:
"THE REPUBLICAN PARTY -- WE'RE SORRY."
since he'll have to blame someone else because he got caught being a closet gay guy.
Posted by: NonnyO at November 4, 2006 06:33 PM
As Mark Russell used to sing, he can always blame the Jews.
Posted by: oncall at November 4, 2006 06:45 PM
Oy....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061104/ap_on_re_us/haggard_sex_allegations
Evangelical chief Haggard forced to quit
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The Rev. Ted Haggard was forced out Saturday as leader of the megachurch he founded after a board determined the influential evangelist had committed "sexually immoral conduct," the church said Saturday.
Haggard had resigned two days earlier as president of the National Association of Evangelicals, where he held sway in Washington and condemned homosexuality, after a Denver man named Mike Jones claimed to have had drug-fueled trysts with him.
"Our investigation and Pastor Haggard's public statements have proven without a doubt that he has committed sexually immoral conduct," the New Life Church's Overseer Board said in a statement.
~~~~~
The church's statement said the investigation would continue, to determine how extensive Haggard's misconduct was.
{More on link.}
Oh, BTW, there was a later poster on that AltNet link that referred to a May, 2005 Harper's story that talked about Haggard going into gay bars to invite men to come to his church, and someone added a link:
http://www.harpers.org/SoldiersOfChrist-20061103288348488.html
Excerpt:
Pastor Ted, who talks to President George W. Bush or his advisers every Monday, is a handsome forty-eight-year-old Indianan, most comfortable in denim. He likes to say that his only disagreement with the President is automotive; Bush drives a Ford pickup, whereas Pastor Ted loves his Chevy. In addition to New Life, Pastor Ted presides over the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), whose 45,000 churches and 30 million believers make up the nation's most powerful religious lobbying group, and also over a smaller network of his own creation, the Association of Life-Giving Churches, 300 or so congregations modeled on New Life's “free market” approach to the divine.
~~~~~
The press tends to regard Dobson as the most powerful evangelical Christian in America, but Pastor Ted is at least his equal. Whereas Dobson plays the part of national scold, promising to destroy politicians who defy the Bible, Pastor Ted quietly guides those politicians through the ritual of acquiescence required to save face. He doesn't strut, like Dobson; he gushes. When Bush invited him to the Oval Office to discuss policy with seven other chieftains of the Christian right in late 2003, Pastor Ted regaled his whole congregation with the story via email. “Well, on Monday I was in the World Prayer Center”—New Life's high-tech, twenty-four-hour-a-day prayer chapel —“and my cell phone rang.” It was a presidential aide; “the President,” says Pastor Ted, wanted him on hand for the signing of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Pastor Ted was on a plane the next morning and in the President's office the following afternoon. “It was incredible,” wrote Pastor Ted. He left it to the press to note that Dobson wasn't there.
~~~~~
New Lifers, Pastor Ted writes with evident pride, “like the benefits, risks, and maybe above all, the excitement of a free-market society.” They like the stimulation of a new brand. “Have you ever switched your toothpaste brand, just for the fun of it?” Pastor Ted asks. Admit it, he insists. All the way home, you felt a “secret little thrill,” as excited questions ran through your mind: “Will it make my teeth whiter? My breath fresher?” This is the sensation Ted wants pastors to bring to the Christian experience. He believes it is time “to harness the forces of free-market capitalism in our ministry.” Once a pastor does t