For Dems only.

[Texsox]

Another reason to be a Democrat.

 

I spoke with New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine today while hanging out at the Governor's mansion. Before complementing me on my beard, he did in fact confirm that he is a lifelong White Sox fan.

 

[FlaSoxxJim]

Another reason to be a Democrat.

 

I spoke with New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine today while hanging out at the Governor's mansion. Before complementing me on my beard, he did in fact confirm that he is a lifelong White Sox fan.

. . . while hanging out at the Governor's mansion.

 

Well La -Dee - Daa. I could hang out at the Governor's mansion too, but I'm waiting on calls from, er . . , the Pope of Russia and, uh . . the King of Bok Choi.

 

Like you're the only important one around here. Sheesh.

[Texsox]

Another reason to be a Democrat.

 

I spoke with New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine today while hanging out at the Governor's mansion. Before complementing me on my beard, he did in fact confirm that he is a lifelong White Sox fan.

 

So, did you flirt back . . .

[Balta1701]

So, did you flirt back . . .

Um...I think you're thinking of the previous governor.

[Balta1701]

    The longtime Washington foe of "frivolous" lawsuits was no less critical of insurance companies that balked at paying claims to Mississippi homeowners. And he didn't hesitate to file suit against a company he once defended, State Farm Fire & Casualty Co.

 

    "Funny how frivolous lawsuits stop being frivolous when it's you," said Lott's brother-in-law, Richard Scruggs, who is representing the senator. Scruggs lost his home not far from Lott's house — and he, along with thousands of other Mississippi home owners, also has a claim against State Farm.

LAT

[Balta1701]

Jesus H. Christ. Matthews again.

 

MATTHEWS: ...won't they say something up beat and (bucking up)... isn't she a great woman, didn't she stand up-and then they'll put the camera right on Ted Kennedy and show how he was the guy that molested her basically-that's the way they'll play it...

[Texsox]

January 31, 2006

 

 

NOTE FROM CHRIS:

 

This bird will sing.

But what kind of songs?

 

 

The Top 8 Jack Abramoff Revelations

 

 

8> He, too had an affair with Paula Abdul.

 

7> Once he got so wasted at a party he tried to bribe himself!

 

6> He's really tired of people suggesting that "Jack Abramoff" is

what guys named Abram get at brothels.

 

5> Tom DeLay likes his money in small bills stuffed into his

g-string.

 

4> He can never remember which Senator is Schumer and which one

is Specter, so he routinely gives them both $50,000 "just to

be sure."

 

3> Despite his best efforts, he cried at the end of "Forrest

Gump."

 

2> Snap and Crackle's contributions to legalize gay marriage.

 

 

and the Number 1 Jack Abramoff Revelation...

 

 

1> Abramoff's the GOP's favorite Jew since Jesus.

 

 

 

[ Copyright 2006 by Chris White ]

[ http://www.topfive.com ]

[Balta1701]

    America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology.

 

Sound familiar?

 

    2002: “This Congress must act to encourage conservation, promote technology, build infrastructure, and it must act to increase energy production at home so America is less dependent on foreign oil.”

 

    2003: “Our third goal is to promote energy independence for our country, while dramatically improving the environment. … [We should be] much less dependent on foreign sources of energy.”

 

    2004: “I urge you to pass legislation to modernize our electricity system, promote conservation, and make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy.”

 

    2005: “I urge Congress to pass legislation that makes America more secure and less dependent on foreign energy.”

[Soxy]

I didn't watch last night, but my sister called to give me the blow by blow. Now, my sister is a special ed teacher so just by virtue of the "leave all the children behind act" she is not a fan of the current admin (not to mention the environment, choice, and a plethora of other issues). So, she's telling me what's going on. She starts shadowing the president on the environmental issues, then she starts making this choking/gagging noise. I was like, Are okay? To which she replied, yes, I'm just choking on my own anger. I think that sums up my feelings pretty well.

[FlaSoxxJim]

I didn't watch last night, but my sister called to give me the blow by blow. Now, my sister is a special ed teacher so just by virtue of the "leave all the children behind act" she is not a fan of the current admin (not to mention the environment, choice, and a plethora of other issues). So, she's telling me what's going on. She starts shadowing the president on the environmental issues, then she starts making this choking/gagging noise. I was like, Are okay? To which she replied, yes, I'm just choking on my own anger.  I think that sums up my feelings pretty well.

 

There were at least a dozen out and out deceits in the address. But one of the most glaring is the lipservice he gave to strengthening the commitment to science education and research. Buy its nature, the No Child program screws kids over in science education from the outset, because it only mandates testing in math and reading. In the current "teach to the test" mindset of schools scrambling to not lose funding, science teachers are even being told to stop teaching science and to concentrate on math and reading in preparation for testing.

 

For the last couple of decades, elementary student performance in the sciences has been above the world average, and it is only in the secondary years where we fall down and the rest of the developed world kicks our students' asses in science scores. Now, we are cutting our students off at the knees in the sciences. It won't matter one wit if there is a nominal renewed commitment to funding research at the university level and beyond if we are giving up on raising the next generation of scientists before they ever had a chance.

 

[Texsox]

The education system in this country needs a serious overhaul. While the public worries about local vs. national control and standardized tests, the text book publishing companies consolidate and the choices of textbooks dwindles. With California and Texas enacting laws on what content must be included, and those being huge markets, they are beginning to control what a child in New Hampshire or Indiana is taught.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Here's another cartoon causing some stir this week:

 

 

In the world of Bushspeak where if you don't agree that the war is going 100% you are an "isolationist" and that the global economic outlook is not 100% rosey you are a "protectionist," I'd say the cartoon is right on the money.

[FlaSoxxJim]

So, do you think the public will even be awake enough to yawn if it turns out that

Scooter Libby's obstruction of justice trial is hampered by yet more obstruction of justice on the part of the adminstration?

 

"In an abundance of caution," he writes, "we advise you that we have learned that not all email of the Office of the Vice President and the Executive Office of the President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White House computer system."

 

Kind of makes you wonder how much document deleting went on on the missing 12 hours between when Abu Gonzo was told by Fitzgerald that all evidence should be preserved and when he actually got around to officially telling everybody to preserve all evidence, eh?

[FlaSoxxJim]

"President Bush is urging all nations to cut off aid to Hamas, including $234 million dollars we were going to send them. In fact, to make sure the money doesn't get there, he's putting FEMA in charge of it."

 

---Jay Leno

[Balta1701]

Link

 

In his State of the Union address to the nation last night, President Bush announced a new cabinet-level position to coordinate all current and future scandals facing his party.

 

President Bush announces his plan to manage the numerous scandals of his administration.

 

"Tonight, by executive order, I am creating a permanent department with a vital mission: to ensure that the political scandals, underhanded dealings, and outright criminal activities of this administration are handled in a professional and orderly fashion," Bush said.

 

The centerpiece of Bush's plan is the Department Of Corruption, Bribery, And Incompetence, which will centralize duties now dispersed throughout the entire D.C.-area political establishment.

 

The Scandal Secretary will log all wiretaps and complaints of prisoner abuse, coordinate paid-propaganda efforts, eliminate redundant payoffs and bribes, oversee the appointment of unqualified political donors to head watchdog agencies, control all leaks and other high-level security breaches, and oversee the disappearance of Iraq reconstruction funds. He will also be responsible for issuing all official denials that laws have been broken.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Love that Onion.

[Balta1701]

Linky

 

A ban on human-animal hybrids announced by President Bush in his State of the Union address has many senior White House staffers panicked, and the NIH, which has been tasked with enforcing the ban, has already prepared subpoenas for DNA samples for most of the White House staff.

 

Dick Cheney, who is thought to be a chickenhawk/man, told reporters today that the State of the Union was not intended to be taken literally by anyone. "It's really a rhetorical flourish," he said. Karl Rove, who many people freely attest is "not entirely human," backed up Cheney, saying that almost everything the President said was "unenforceable." Cheney and Rove then retired to the White House dining room where they gnawed on hanging seed sticks and sharpened their beaks.

 

A White House official, who preferred to remain anonymous because commenting on the genetic makeup of co-workers is frowned upon, said that Donald Rumsfeld, while not necessarily a chickenhawk, was certainly half-man, half-beast.

 

In this morning's press gaggle, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan found himself denying rumors today that the President himself is "half-man, half-chimp," saying only, "There's just a resemblance." After becoming increasingly defensive, McClellan finally compared the press corps to "a bunch of geese" and left the room.

 

A poll this morning found that Americans, by and large, are completely unconcerned by events in the White House or on Capitol Hill. According to pollster Melonie Fisk, "On the whole, Americans are more concerned with keeping up with the herd and the coming spring shearing."

[Balta1701]

Chris Matthews...from that liberal bastion of MSNBC...blames the church burnings today on "Liberals." This man really seems to admire O'Reilly. Wow.

 

MATTHEWS: Is there anything in the papers down there where a Baptist church has taken a position on some social issue, gay marriage, something that's hot, where that would have aroused somebody?

 

ATF AGENT CAVANAUGH: I haven't seen that Chris, but it's very viable because we had an arson at a Unitarian church in rural Virginia, back in the summer, and it was right after the church at a national level had embraced gay members. There was an attack on this church in Staunton (?), Virginia, so things like that can happen.

 

MATTHEWS: That's why I'm thinking like that because the more liberal churches would drive some people on the right crazy and maybe a more liberal person, who's gay for example, would feel that they've been terrorized by the beliefs of another church too. We don't know.

[kapkomet]

Chris Matthews...from that liberal bastion of MSNBC...blames the church burnings today on "Liberals."  This man really seems to admire O'Reilly.  Wow.

Pardon this interruption for a brief Indie comment.

 

Bwroooooaaaaah Bwroaaaaahhhhh Bworaaaaaahhhh.....

 

"liberal" church person and "liberal" politically are two different things. VERY different.

 

We now bring you back to your regularly scheduled Dem only thread.

 

bweeep bweep bweeep.

 

/carries on

[Balta1701]

Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, who was elected House majority leader last week, is renting his Capitol Hill apartment from a veteran lobbyist whose clients have direct stakes in legislation Boehner has co-written and that he has overseen as chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee.

 

The relationship between Boehner, John D. Milne and Milne's wife, Debra R. Anderson, underscores how intertwined senior lawmakers have become with the lobbyists paid to influence legislation. Boehner's primary residence is in West Chester, Ohio, but for $1,600 a month, he rents a two-bedroom basement apartment near the House office buildings on Capitol Hill owned by Milne, Boehner spokesman Don Seymour said Tuesday. Boehner's monthly rent appears to be similar to other rentals of two-bedroom English basement apartments close to the House side of the Capitol in Southeast, based on a review of apartment listings.

Washington Post, tomorrow. Here's the question...if the guy from the WaPo who wrote that piece were to read it out loud...would he do air quotes on the word "rents"?

[Balta1701]

The Administration hackjob who was forcing NASA to add the word "theory" to any paper referring to the big bang and who seemingly lied about graduating from Texas A & M Has resigned.

 

I'd have posted this in that thread...but some mean person closed it for no obvious reason.

[FlaSoxxJim]

The Administration hackjob who was forcing NASA to add the word "theory" to any paper referring to the big bang and who seemingly lied about graduating from Texas A & M Has resigned.

 

I'd have posted this in that thread...but some mean person closed it for no obvious reason.

I heard this on Democracy Now this morning and was quite pleased.

 

This was the BushCo hack appointment story in microcosm. How many decades of extertise in the intelligence, natuonal secirity, defense, and science fields have been lost as career staffers have been ousted in favor of hacks whose only job qualification is unlimited and unquestioned support of BushCo policy?

[Soxy]

I know I shouldn't but. . .

 

 

A man enters a bar and orders a drink. The bar has a robot bartender.

The robot serves him a perfectly prepared cocktail, and then asks him,

"What's your IQ?" The man replies "150" and the robot proceeds to make

conversation about global warming factors, quantum physics and

spirituality, biomimicry, environmental interconnectedness, string

theory, nano-technology, and sexual proclivities. The customer is very

impressed and thinks, "This is really cool."

 

He decides to test the robot.

 

He walks out of the bar, turns around, and comes back in for another

drink. Again, the robot serves him the perfectly prepared drink and

asks him, "What's your IQ?" The man responds, "about 100." Immediately

the robot starts talking, but this time, about football, NASCAR,

baseball, supermodels, favorite fast foods, guns, and women's breasts.

 

Really impressed, the man leaves the bar and decides to give the robot

one more test. He heads out and returns, the robot serves him another

perfectly prepared drink and asks, "What's your IQ?" The man replies,

"Er, 50, I think."

 

And the robot says... real slowly, "So.......... ya gonna vote for

Bush again?"

[Balta1701]

I heard this on Democracy Now this morning and was quite pleased.

 

This was the BushCo hack appointment story in microcosm.  How many decades of extertise in the intelligence, natuonal secirity, defense, and science fields have been lost as career staffers have been ousted in favor of hacks whose only job qualification is unlimited and unquestioned support of BushCo policy?

I don't think any of those staffing changes compares to the job we did in sending folks right out of the College Republicans and Heritage foundation to go and orchestrate the rebuilding of Iraq.

[NorthSideSox72]

I don't think any of those staffing changes compares to the job we did in sending folks right out of the College Republicans and Heritage foundation to go and orchestrate the rebuilding of Iraq.

My personal fav is still "Brownie". Put a guy in charge of the largest emergency response agency on earth who hasn't ever been within a mile of a disaster. Aside from how dangerous that was, it was poilitically idiotic. As a Prez, you can be fairly sure that some large domestic disaster will occur during your term. And you KNOW that event could make or break your reputation. And you knowingly put a useless favor appointment in charge of FEMA? Moronic.