Have you heard this line awkwardly repeated by Bush every time he speaks lately?  Do you think perhaps he's trying a little too hard to assert this as an accepted truth? Me neither. So how should one respond?

AP has picked up the story.  Nathan Newman covers it too, pointing to Sirota who tells us that Kentucky is not the only state where political censorship of blogs is/may be an issue (Missouri - Blunt, Indiana - Daniels, Mississippi - Barbour.)  If you're interested in helping out and are a resident of Kentucky, go to one of Sirota's pages and contribute your opinion.

Referring to Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist, who was in attendance, Bush said, "He's a good man. He's a good guy to deal with, he is doing a fantastic job of herding cats." And somewhere a loud screech of terror went up from the animal shelters all over Nashville.

Meow!

And when Cheney's cryin', yellin' that it hurts, his ass hurts, when he's weepin' and wonderin', 'Why? Why are you shoving all this up my ass?' I'll, 'Because you've been shovin' it all up our asses for years, you vicious, soulless bastard. Now, stay bent over, 'cause, trust me, there's tons more shovin' to do and then I'm gonna fuck you Deliverance style, you corporate pig, so start practicin' your squealin'.

Members of the military will be allowed to vote this year by faxing or e-mailing their ballots - after waiving their right to a secret ballot. Beyond this fundamentally undemocratic requirement, the Electronic Transmission Service, as it's known, has far too many problems to make it reliable, starting with the political partisanship of the contractor running it. The Defense Department is making matters worse by withholding basic information about the service, and should suspend it immediately.

I suppose I'll quit sending checks to Dean and give that money to Pat instead.  I mean, it would be nice to have an ally with a hot line to God and all.  Wouldn't hurt for me to hedge my bets, would it?

Haven't all unelected leaders (kings, dictators, frauds) laid claim to a divine right to rule over the people? Should King George be any different?  (No, I don't consider a 5-4 Extreme Court decision to be a valid election.)

Perhaps a moment of silence this New Year's Eve to honor those our aWol leader sent to their deaths?
It's good to see there is at least one publication willing to remember these soldiers fallen in 2003. Damned chickenhawks need skewered daily on this issue!

Imagine for a moment that you took all your credit cards and maxed them out. Now take your mortgage and borrow the maximum on it. Cash in the kid's college fund, your rainy day savings, your 401(k) retirement savings. While you're at it, stop paying for your health insurance and the maintenance on your house, your car and your yard. Now take all that money and spend it. Feeling pretty flush? Sure you are. You just pumped tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars into your pocket.

But you'd never do that.

Because you know that just because you'd be living large for the time being, you wouldn't be wealthier. In fact, you'd be getting poorer by the minute.

And yet, that's exactly what Bush's recovery is -- a giant borrowing binge. But he'd rather you didn't know that. In February, the administration buried a report from its own Treasury Department that said our current fiscal policies, the ones Bush likes to claim are bringing on a "recovery," would create more than $44 trillion in chronic debt.

John Atcheson is dead on the money regarding our economic "recovery" with this article.

HANDLING
THE BULLIES

Sam Smith

For many years now, the Republican right has engaged in a politics of cultural bullying that is the direct descendent of the southern segregationists. It is based on anathematizing a minority in order to solidify its own political base around false assumptions of purity and superiority. It is an illusion that deceives much of its own constituency into thinking that ultimately minor cultural differences are more important than such issues as economics, healthcare or public education. Thus it is not only mean, it is masochistic. One minority ends up being hurt by another that is being conned and hurt in other ways.

The illusion works best in a politics in which a large portion of the public is politically inert. That way you don't have to convince a majority, you need only mobilize your own minority. It is a vile sort of politics that deliberately fosters hate and anger and is as alien from the American ideal as one can find. It is, in fact, far closer to the theocratic tyranny of the Taliban than to anything in our own best traditions.

One of the reasons the Republican right has gotten away with it so successfully, however, is that both the media and liberals have been willing to fight the battle precisely on the grounds that the right wishes: namely the presumption that one must choose sides in whatever cultural jihad it launches...

Go, read, now.  We must learn how to win back the South.  I want to win all 50 states, the presidency and Congress this time, before it's too late.