I'm Baaaaack!

Jeeze, Louise, it's cold here. But never mind. This cold snap, if last year's Gobal Warming Winter is any predictor of this year's GWW, will not last long and by January we will be enjoying tempertures in the 60s. I'm back from sunny South Texas, were the natives, both Anglo and Chicano, are upset over the plans by the Depatment of Homeland Security to require passports for Americans to reenter the US from Mexico.

Me thinks the lady doth protest overmuch

Here's something to chew on...

Thanks for nothing, Dems

November 14, 2006

Thanks to all of you who voted for the Democrats during the 2006 election, deciding to take our country "in a new direction."

Thanks to you, we are headed down a path that includes more government programs funded by higher taxes (in effect, income redistribution from those who earn more than $150,000 per year); laws that reflect the "anything goes" mentality of immoral behavior (abortion, same-sex marriage, anti-family legislation); more porous borders that leave us vulnerable to another Sept. 11-type attack with no military funding to protect us.

All of this while the liberal media applaud their successful effort in helping to elect the Democrats. Yes, I am really looking forward to traveling down the path promised by the Democrats as they take us "in a new direction."

- D___ M______,

Ankeny.

I've often wonder what motivates folks such as the woman who penned this letter to the editor? Mostly I think it is guilt, why else would she be so incensed at "'anything goes'" laws unless she participated in all forms of the "immoral behavior" at one time in her past?

Dick Viguerie: Nancy Pelosi thanks you

So this right wing prick is fed up with the Bush Republicans, eh? Another e-mail from the king of bullshit, Richard Viguerie, designed to whip the Republican faithful, i.e. braindead, back into shape for 2008.

Top 10 Thank-You Notes for Nancy Pelosi to Send this Thanksgiving
By Richard A. Viguerie
Author
Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus Books, 2006)

Nancy Pelosi, who stands to be Speaker of the House when the new Congress is sworn into office, is a smart politician, and one of the smartest things she and other Democratic leaders did this year was to step aside as much as possible and let the Bush Republicans and their backers self-destruct. She must be overflowing with gratitude to countless Bushies, so to make the transition a bit easier for her, I have come up with the Top 10 thank-you notes she should put in the mail this Thanksgiving…

Nancy Pelosi says
thank-you to …

10. To Vice President Cheney, Bill Kristol, and their cell of “neo-conservatives,” for turning the Republicans into a Trotskyite party—just what Americans have always wanted.

9. To Rush Limbaugh, for his display of “compassionate conservatism” toward Michael J. Fox a week before the election.

8. To outgoing House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois), for transforming a personal scandal involving Rep. Tom Foley into a GOP scandal.

7. To Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), for creating an engineering marvel worthy of the Roman Empire—their beloved Bridge to Nowhere.

6. To Ken Mehlman, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, for taking conservative issues off the agenda, except for his direct mail fundraising letters.

5. To former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), for paring every wasteful dollar out of the federal budget, thus creating a nasty image of the Republicans as the party of Uncle Scrooge.

4. To Karl Rove, for not reading Conservatives Betrayed, which would have awakened him to the dangers of making real conservatives unhappy.

3. To “Brownie” (former FEMA director Michael Brown), for doing such a heck of a job during Katrina, letting Americans see how prepared the Bush Administration was for a scheduled natural terrorist attack.

2. To Jack Abramoff, philanthropist, for his unlimited generosity toward his Republican friends.

And,

1. To President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, for keeping their divorce a secret until the election was over.

Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of both ConservativeHQ.com and American Target Advertising, Inc., pioneered ideological and political direct mail and has been called “the funding father of the conservative movement” for his role in helping build dozens of conservative organizations. He is the author of 5 books including the newly released Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus Books, 2006).

Richard Viguerie’s Conservatives Betrayed
9625 Surveyor Court, Suite 400
Manassas, Virginia 20110

Let's look carefully at this pile of eleaphant doo-do. In an earlier e-mail Viguerie is quoted from a press conference at The National Press Club, saying:“One thing this election was NOT is a repudiation of conservatism. The twin pillars of conservatism – smaller government and traditional values – have the support of the same voters who threw out the Republican Congress.”

Oh? How's he know this. A CNN poll told him so. I mean, what the fuck are "traditional values?" A pair of clean bib overalls and a loaf of bread for a nickle? And government smaller that what? General Motors? No, my friend, it's the same old "pro-business/fundamentalist Christian" bullshit in a new suit. This has been Viguerie's stock in trade for forty years. The "corrupt," "out-of-touch" Republicans have been swept out of office, praise Jesus, so it's time for real Republicans, the outsiders, to fight the BIG-GOVERNMENT-Inside-the-Beltway-Democrats. Such bullshit.

Oh sure, the old bullshitter is right about the monumental fuck-ups of corrupt Congressional Republicans. He's right about the president. But so what? He's got his palm out for the suckers to pony up for the Republican push to take back the government in '08.

And remember the old bullshitter said that Repugs shouldn't use Nancy Pelosi-as-Speaker of the US House of Representatives as a scare tactic? Well, he just did.

A letter from Ed Fallon

Dear Friends,

With the general election finally over, I again would like to thank everyone who supported my campaign and the campaigns of other good candidates. This January, at both the state and national levels, Democrats will have a truly unique opportunity to lead Iowa and America forward, and that opportunity is in part due to our efforts.

However, while many key victories were won on election night, the most important battles are still to be fought. In both Washington, D.C. and Des Moines, this new generation of Democratic leadership must prove it is worthy of the voters’ confidence. It is time to enact progressive legislation that puts people before profit. In Iowa, this long list of priorities includes:

* Voter-owned clean elections;
* Controlling urban sprawl;
* Better levels of financial support for all aspects of our educational system;
* Improved health-care access for all Iowans;
* Addressing a wide range of long-neglected environmental concerns;
* Increasing the minimum wage to a livable wage; and
* Redirecting economic development monies from corporate giveaways to small business development.

Over the next two months, I’ll take some much-needed down time to rest and to reflect on my options. (This much is clear: my life is firmly committed to public service.) Most of my and my co-workers’ efforts through the end of the year will focus on restructuring our organization so it can continue to provide a strong, grassroots framework for justice and political work. During this time, we will stop sending out weekly updates, and the website will be down to give us a chance to rebuild it. A new website will be launched and e-mail updates resumed after the first of the year.

Again, thank you for your help and support. I look forward to being back in touch with you after the holidays. May this season of political and seasonal transition be one of peace, comfort and reflection for us all.

Sincerely,

Ed

Dems win, assholes still with us

The Democrats won. And perhaps, at lesat in the US House of Representatives, won big. The Democrats sweep the Iowa Statehouse, except in the race for Secretary of Agriculture where Democrat Denise O'Brien goes down in a close loss to Republican agribusinessman Bill Northey.

The Secretary of Agriculture race proves once again that negative campign advertising works. O'Brien, an organic farmer, was quietly ahead in opinion polls for most of the campaign until it really bagan to look like she'd win. Then the Republicans cranked up the slime machine, and the Des Moines Register, jumping on the corn-based ethonol bandwagon, endorsed the Spirit Lake Republican MBA. Oh, well.

But the election isn't the real reason I'm posting today. Life goes on and, to resurrect a Seventies turn of phrase, up-tight assholes are still with us. To wit:

The owner of a Johnston-based hotel chain, Stoney Creek Inns, has pulled the CNN news channel from the cable lineup in his 10 hotels because he believes the cable network supports terrorists.

"Regardless of your views on the war, a recent CNN broadcast of sniper assassinations of American soldiers in Iraq is offensive," James Thompson said in a prepared statement. "We will not be a party to propaganda for terrorists."

Thompson founded Stoney Creek Inns 10 years ago. The company has locations in Johnston and Waukon in Iowa; East Peoria, Galena, Moline and Quincy in Illinois; Columbia and St. Joseph in Missouri, and La Crosse and Wausau in Wisconsin.

Tony Magro of Barrington, Ill., told the Wausau Daily Herald he was staying at the Stoney Creek Inn near Wausau when he noticed he could not find CNN on the television in his room. The hotel staff told him Thompson had instructed his employees to remove the channels because he thought CNN aids terrorists.

Please. CNN supports terrorists. That's the weakest horseshit excuse for dropping a television network I've ever heard. But that's a Republican baaaadass for you. The owner of a small chain of phony mountain lodges seeing phony terrorist under the beds in his cheesey hotels.

News item: Dobson to cure Haggard of homosexuality

Dis is rich:

Dobson to aid in counseling Haggard
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Focus on the Family founder James Dobson will be one of the people overseeing counseling for the Rev. Ted Haggard, the evangelical pastor who was fired amid allegations of gay sex and drug use, a senior official of Dobson's organization said Monday.

The counseling process, called restoration, could take years, said H.B. London, vice president for church and clergy at Focus on the Family, a Colorado Springs-based ministry.

Here's how it works:
Dobson places Haggard in a room, the walls and ceiling of which is covered in pictures of young, muscular men. Dobson, a psychologist as well as minister, will instruct Haggard to look intensely at all the picutres and repeat: "I will not eat meat. I will not eat meat."

After repeating the formula over and over, in this case for months, Haggard is released a cured and changed man.

We jump to the near future about six months after the Rev. James Dobson pronouces his most famous patient "cured" of homosexuality.

Of course the good Rev. Dobson will of necessity need to cruise Colorado Spring's most notorious gay night clubs to make sure his star pupil doesn't backslide.

And it happened in the course of his rounds one night, Dobson walks into Club Q, 3430 North Academy Blvd and who should he see with his arms wrapped around two Navel Academy Midshipmen, in town for the Air Force Academy/Navy football game, but Ted Haggard.

"God damn you, you faggot sonuvabitch! You lied to me! You said you would not eat meat and here I find you in the arms of a couple of sailors!" thundered Dobson.

Haggard looks up at Dobson and smiles, "This ain't meat, Jim. This is seafood!"

Kerry was right the first time

On Monday John Kerry, U.S. senator from Massachusetts, said: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Now the first I read about Kerry's so-called gaff was yesterday on a Taylor Marsh's HuffPo blog. I scanned the blog but it didn't register. Not a story, I concluded.

But every slip of the lip is a story to our "liberal" media. Yes, the "liberal" media is tripping all over its collective dick saying that Kerry said only stupid and uneducated kids enlist in the military.

Well, you know what, if they say that's what he said then he's right.

If, after... what three and a half, four years, in Iraq?... and you're a kid who enlists in the military and volunteers to go to Iraq, you are frigging stupid. If you're a high school kid who willingly feeds the killing machine, you are frigging stupid. If you're a high school kid who believes Bush's war on terror has to be fought over there so we don't have to fight'em over here, you are frigging stupid.

But if you're a high school or college kid who believes all of the above, doesn't enlist for the military--Because you know that some other poor slob will to it and your precious time and life chasing an MBA is too valuable-- you are frigging scum.