SOTU Live Blogging

And we're off!

Here he comes President 39%.

Roomie's remarks: "You almost wish it was like Japanese Emperors who when they shamed themselves they would kill themselves."

They arrested Cindy Sheehan? Bastards!

If your playing the drinking game you just got a round of Sept. 11-Iraq War. Bottoms up.

Lots of empty seats. Hmmm.

Interesting the use of pre-World War II rhetoric. Interesting and wrong, because I don't think anybody is arguing for a return to an isolationism world view. It's about smart diplomacy dumbass.

Fuckin' Lieberman.

SOTU Preshow

Can we say panic mode?

As presidents before him have, Mr. Bush is addressing the United States' reliance on foreign oil. "America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world," Mr. Bush plans to say. "The best way to break this addiction is through technology."

The excerpts do not elaborate on the allusion to technology, which seems to confirm predictions that Mr. Bush's speech will propose more use of alternative fuels for automobiles, like corn-based ethanol, and will suggest a revival of nuclear-powered projects.

Nor do the excerpts suggest that Mr. Bush will again call for drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve in Alaska, a politically explosive proposal that has thus far failed to make it through Congress.

Till Death Do They Depart

As red rabbit noted a few days ago, had anyone on the left been quoted, as was Ann Coulter, as saying, even in jest, that a conservative Supreme Court Justice should be poisoned, the outcry would have been swift and unrelenting. And yet if there’s one kernel of truth in Coulter’s puerile drivel worth considering it’s that there’s something deeply wrong with a system where justices serve for life, which means if you want to remove someone from the bench it makes a lot of sense to imagine him/her dying. (How about a contest for the best scenarios in which Thomas and Scalia breathe their last? I've got one involving Thomas and a Coke can--just a joke, ya'll.) As I argued last year it’s time to amend the Constitution so that Supreme Court Justices serve 12-year terms on a staggered basis. Every four years the President gets three court appointees. Sure, there’s a lot to debate on this matter, but the key point is we ought to have the debate. (I suspect the idea of W’s having six appointees over his two terms is absolutely horrifying, but had this kind of system been in place I’m willing to bet there’s no way the frat boy would have been elected in the first place—it simply wouldn’t have been close enough to steal.)
The Senate is an obvious venue for this discussion, if only because the sole justification for having such an anti-democratic body as the Senate (how can it be fair that five million folks in, say, Arizona, get as much say as twice their number in Illinois?) is that its putative role is to provide a place for deliberation about matters of governance, shielded from the storms of daily politics—a place for statesmanship. Of course, the last time that the Senate played that role was, well, never. Which is to say, isn’t it time that the 42 Senators who voted “nay” to confirming Alito pointed out that they represent at least as many, if not more, Americans than the 58 who voted “yea,” and that there’s something deeply wrong about a non-democratic body having the power to assist the executive branch in giving a lifetime appointment to someone unacceptable to half the nation's citizenry?
To be sure, there’s no substitute for building a progressive majority, but along the way we need to look at those existing structures that thwart the progressive elements already at work in the polity.

Remember

When you start getting mail and phone calls and even email asking for campaign contributions, for your hard-earned cash, remember this sorryass group.

Akaka (HI), Baucus (MT), Bingaman (NM), Byrd (WV), Cantwell (WA), Carper (DE), Dorgan (ND), Inouye (HI), Johnson (SD), Kohl (WI), Landrieu (LA), Lieberman (CT), Lincoln (AR), Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Pryor (AR), Rockefeller (WV), Salazar (CO)

They don't deserve another dime.

The best thing I've read today

From Firedoglake.

If your name is accompanied by the words "Democratic lobbyist who advised Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign," then you deserve a warm glass of shut-the-hell-up.

That's a Felony, Honey

"We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee," Coulter said.

What the hell? Who invited this moron to speak at Philander Smith? The alma mater of many distinguished people, including the professor's mother, who departed this plane less than a year ago, and was at least spared this nonsense.

Oh, and by the way, the joke's on Ann the Man Coulter. I will await the reports of her arrest and conviction for threatening a Federal official.

CALL OBAMA NOW! 202-224-2854

I just called Senator Obama's Washington DC office and asked if he was supporting the filibuster. The aide who answered the phone said he had not made a decision yet. I asked what was he waiting for. She said he wanted to hear all the opinions on it. I told her there were six voting Democrats in this household and if Senator Obama did not support John Kerry's call for a filibuster, these six votes would not be supporting Mr. Obama in the future.

What the hell is he waiting for? Testing the waters of his political future? Call him and urge him to support the filibuster if he wants a political future.

CALL OBAMA NOW! 202-224-2854 in DC or his Chicago office: 312-886-3506

46 Reasons Why Democrats Need to Clean House

I nearly choked on my cheerios when I read Sec. 605 of the USA PATRIOT IMPROVEMENT AND REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2005, just my usual morning reading.

There is hereby created and established a permanent police force, to be known as the `United States Secret Service Uniformed Division'.
...
(b)(1) Under the direction of the Director of the Secret Service, members of the United States Secret Service Uniformed Division are authorized to--

(A) carry firearms;

(B) make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence, or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony...

And you can bet your sweet patootie that I had to know who, if any, of my political persuasion would support such fascist crap. So I looked and looked and I found their names, every one, and if this were a Wall of Shame it would look like this.

In the Senate:

Johnson, S.D.; Nelson, Neb.

And in the House:

Andrews (NJ); Barrow (GA); Bean (IL); Bishop (GA), Boren (OK); Boswell (IA); Boyd (FL); Cardin (MD); Carnahan (MO); Case (HI); Chandler (KY); Cooper (TN); Costa (CA); Cramer (AL); Cuellar (TX); Davis (AL); Davis (FL); Davis (TN); Edwards (TX); Emanuel (IL); Etheridge (NC); Harman (CA); Herseth (SD); Higgins (NY); Holden (PA); Hoyer (MD); Lipinski (IL); Marshall (GA); McCarthy (NY); McIntyre (NC); Melancon (LA); Miller (NC); Moore (KS); Pomeroy (ND); Reyes (TX); Ross (AR); Rothman (NJ); Ruppersberger (MD); Schiff (CA); Schwartz (PA); Scott (GA); Skelton (MO); Spratt (SC); Taylor (MS)

Are we paying attention yet?

Thanks to Paul Craig Roberts and Smirking Chimp.

Flustered, Flummoxed, and Fumbling

This is hilarious. Poor Georgie, embarrassed by a Brokeback Mountain question, loses any grip he had on grammar, sentence structure or linear thought. Interesting that the questioner, a Kansas rancher, got past the Secret Service screeners to ask his question, enthusiastically adding:

You'd love it! You should check it out!

Even more interesting is that he thought our boy George would love Brokeback Mountain.

A Soldier Loses His Personal War

On January 16th, three days ago, Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran Spc. Douglas Barber took his own life. Read the message that Doug was trying to get out to help soldiers dealing with post traumatc stress disorder.

Spc Douglas Barber: PTSD- Every Soldier's Personal WAR!
1/9/05

In the last month I have been working with Jay Shaft, the editor of Coalition For Free Thought in media regarding my experiances in Iraq and since coming home from the war. We have only touched on some of the struggles of being a soldier, however we have not dug deeply into the personal war that Operation Iraqi Freedom has caused for returning soldiers.

Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush do not want to reveal to the American people that this war is a personal war. They want to run the war like a business, and thus they refuse to show the personal sacrifices the soldiers and their families have made for this country.

My thought today is to help you the reader understand what happens to a soldier when they come home and the sacrifice we continue to make. This may be lengthy, it may be short; but no matter how long it is, just close your eyes and imagine a flag drapped coffin.

Inside that coffin is the body of a man or woman who will never get to live their life to the fullest, yet they bore the total cost so that we could live free. Their soul is somewhere else and all we have is their memory which over time will be forgotten by other everts of greater importance. The families of these soldiers have a hole in their hearts that will never be replaced, even though they have pictures and happy memories.

Some families will refuse to believe they are gone, but still their sons and daughters are the heros of a country that sent them to war. This war on terror has become a personal war for so many, yet the Bush Administration does not want journalists or families to photograph the only thing that is left of our soldiers who have died. They do not want the people to remember that image of a flag draped coffin as the last memory this country will ever have of our fallen men and women.

They say that America will raise their voices and demand a stop to the war, but my question is why should we not show the results of war? For us as a country, we send these soldiers to war and we see their faces while they are alive. I say let their memories live on in every photo, even when they do come home in a flag drapped coffin. Let their sacrifice be forever etched in the memory of America. We owe their families this at the very least.

All is not okay or right for those of us who return home alive and supposedly well. What looks like normalcy and readjustment is only an illusion to be revealed by time and torment. Some soldiers come home missing limbs and other parts of their bodies. Still others will live with permanent scars from horrific events that no one other than those who served will ever understand.

We come home from war trying to put our lives back togather but some cannot stand the memories and decide that death is better. They kill themselves because they are so haunted by seeing children killed and whole families wiped out.

They ask themselves how you put a price tag on someone elses life? The question goes unanswered as they become another casualty of the war. Heros become another statistic to America and they are another little article relegated to the back of a newspaper.

Still others come home to nothing, families have abandoned them: husbands and wives have left these soldiers, and so have parents as well. Post Tramatic Stress Disorder has become the norm amongst these soldiers because they don't know how to cope with returning to a society that will never understand what they have had to endure to liberate another country.

PTSD comes in many forms not understood by many: but yet if a soldier has it, America thinks the soldiers are crazy. PTSD comes in the form of depression, anger, regret, being confrontational, anxiety, chronic pain, compulsion, delusions, grief, guilt,dependance,loneliness, sleep disorders, suspiciousness/paranoia, low self-esteem and so many other things.

We are easily startled with a loud bang or noise and can be found ducking for cover when we get panicked. This is a result of artillery rounds going off in a combat zone, or an IED blowing up.

I myself have trouble coping with an everyday routine that deals with other people that often causes me to have a short fuse. A lot of soldiers lose multiple jobs just because they are trained to be killers and they have lived in an enviroment that is condusive to that. We are always on guard for our safety and that of our commrades. When you go to bed at night you wonder will you be sent home in a flag draped coffin because a motar round went off on your sleeping area.

Soldiers live in deplorable conditions where burning your own feces is the order of the day. Where going days on end with no shower and the uniform you wear gets so crusty it sometimes sticks to your body becomes a common occurence. We also deal with rationing water or even food for that matter. So when a soldier comes home to what they left they are unsure of what to do being in a civilized world again.

This is what PTSD comes in the shape of--soldiers can not often handle coming back to the same world they left behind. It is something that drives soldiers over the edge and causes them to withdraw from society. As Americans we turn our nose down at them wondering why they act the way they do. Who cares about them, why should we help them?

Talk show hosts like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and so many others act like they know all about war; then they refuse to give any creadence to soldiers like me who have been to war and seen the brutality of war. These guys are nothing but WEAK SPINELESS COWARDS hiding behind microphones while soldiers come home and are losing everything they have.
I ask every American who reads this e-mail to stand up for the soldier who has given their everything for this country to stand up to these guys in the media; ask them why they don't pick up a weapon and follow in the steps of a soldier. Send this e-mail to as many people on your e-mail lists and ask them to do the same.

There needs to be a National awareness for every Veteran who has ever served in any war. Send e-mails to the Big Mouths on TV and ask them to have soldiers like me on their programs. I am asking you as Americans to BOYCOTT every TV show or host/journalist that refuses to tell the real truth.

THIS IS A PERSONAL CHALLENGE TO BILL,SEAN AND RUSH TO HAVE ME ON YOUR PROGRAM TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT. Other wise you are nothing but dirt under every soldiers boot!

Spc Douglas Barber

RIP, Doug.

Happy Holidays

Here is Kodiak standing, or rather lounging, on the front lines defending Christmas against secularists. In the first one he's on point. Look at that steely gaze.

I have to admit that it looks like he's wavering in the second shot. He's either thinking, "Gee it's lonely being a Christian in these Godless times," or, "Squeaky toy!"

Boortz and the Boogie Man

You may remember that some of the pre-release reviews of Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" in 1989 castigated Lee for having made a film that was surely going to provoke riots in the streets of major urban centers. Of course there were no "Do the Right Thing" riots, and to my knowledge, no mass purgings from Arts and Entertainment pages of the critics who were so quick to sound the false alarm, alas.

For a more recent, sleazier version of racist chicken little social/cultural commentary check out rightwing hack, Neal Boortz's dire predictions (thanks red rabbit) of race riots should Tookie Williams be executed. Accordingly, Boortz disdainfully predicted that the governator's fear of violent unrest would prompt a stay of Williams's execution.

The next morning, finding himself wrong on both counts, Boortz did the honorable rightwing thing these days--blame the weather. With no Category 4 hurricane to point to, Boortz decided it was just too damn cold in LA for the Negroes to get worked up. Someone tell me this isn't the 1880s.

This is of interest only because it gives you some idea of how willing the right is to use the specter of black urban unrest to explain/justify anything and everything--and their sense that democrats are still vulnerable to the soft-on-crime charge.

The punitive anti-crime/anti-terrorist police-state policies the Right has been pushing can't get enough of boogie men, domestic and international, for whom extreme measures are presumed to be the only possible measures.

Federally Funded Fairy Tales

I missed this in February, but just guess where $167 million of your taxes are going... c'mon, guess again. Alright, your money and mine is going to abstinence-only programs in high schools around the country. Here's a little snippet:

Deep inside every man is a knight in shining armor, ready to rescue a maiden and slay a dragon. When a man feels trusted, he is free to be the strong, protecting man he longs to be.

Imagine a knight traveling through the countryside. He hears a princess in distress and rushes gallantly to slay the dragon. The princess calls out, “I think this noose will work better!” and throws him a rope. As she tells him how to use the noose, the knight obliges her and kills the dragon. Everyone is happy, except the knight, who doesn’t feel like a hero. He is depressed and feels unsure of himself. He would have preferred to use his own sword.

The knight goes on another trip. The princess reminds him to take the noose. The knight hears another maiden in distress. He remembers how he used to feel before he met the princess; with a surge of confidence, he slays the dragon with his sword. All the townspeople rejoice, and the knight is a hero. He never returned to the princess. Instead, he lived happily ever after in the village, and eventually married the maiden—but only after making sure she knew nothing about nooses.

Moral of the story: Occasional assistance may be all right, but too much will lessen a man’s confidence or even turn him away from his princess.

Oh, and, if your subscription to Seventeen has expired, not to worry. The U.S. government has come up with a list of 5 things you need to know about your knight or your princess:

5 Major Needs of Women:
Affection, Conversation, Honesty and Openness, Financial Support, Family Commitment

5 Major Needs of Men:
Sexual Fulfillment, Recreational Companionship, Physical Attractiveness, Admiration, Domestic Support

I think they skipped the chapter on Brokeback Enchanted Forest, where Lance and Galahad have fun with swordplay, with nary a thought of princesses or dragons.

And You Thought Waterboarding Was A Sport

Sidney Blumenthal's piece on Condoliar Rice's trip through Europe exemplifies what has become a familiar strategy for this administration: issue a categorical statement denying wrongdoing and then in subsequent encounters with the media, qualify, qualify, qualify, until you finally admit that you're doing exactly what you denied doing in the first place, but that you are justified in doing so.

On that note I thought I heard Charles Krauthammer on NPR's "The World" yesterday defending the practice of waterboarding ("it gives you the sensation that you're drowning," farted Charles (perhaps not an exact quote) before going on to claim that we have not had a terrorist attack in this country since 9/11 because of these sorts of interrogation practices.

Please Check Your Advisors at the Party Door

Is there any truth to the Washington Post's take on how the Democratic Party is NOT the well-oiled machine we've come to love and respect and count on? Maybe. And maybe Nancy Pelosi should've flipped before she flopped. I have to admit it was a pretty boneheaded move to balk for several days before agreeing with Murtha's call for a rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. But maybe it's her advisors who are flailing. You know, the ones on the Republican payroll?

Marshall Wittmann, a former Republican political strategist now with the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, said Pelosi may have resurrected her party's most deadly liability -- voters' lack of trust in the party on national security.

A former Republican strategist??!!?? Is it any wonder they usually do such a good job gumming up the Democratic works, the Democrats come off sounding and acting like warmed-over Republicans? I can't help but wonder if someone's wising up and purging the ranks because, apparently, Nancy's not listening, Marshall, and the Democrats in general are looking downright LIBERAL these days. But is it too much to ask for a little cohesion? A statement we can all get behind? The professor offers a little jumpstart:

“By attacking Congressman Murtha, Congresswoman Pelosi, and the Democratic Party for criticizing Bush’s failed war strategy the Administration and the Republican Party once again display their arrogance and their alienation from the American people. An overwhelming majority of the American people knows this war has been mishandled. These same Americans know that the road to security and peace is an exit strategy from Iraq that the Administration doesn’t have. The Bush Administration’s response to criticism of its flawed "Plan for Victory" demonstrates its contempt for the very citizens who are paying the taxes that support this war. Scandalously, the Republican attack shows what they think of the citizens whose sons and daughters, husbands and wives, and whose fathers and mothers are paying for this mishandled war with their lives.”

Digby Does Demographics

Dear Democratic Leadership, read this now!.

Democrats can look to the future and find a populist message that doesn't cater to white fear and tendencies to scapegoat minorities. And we can add the Hispanic community permanently into our coalition, denying Karl Rove his most coveted goal. Or we can take the easy way out and catch a few Bubbas until the economy turns around, at which point they'll go right back home to the party that really knows how to feed their worst instincts on regular basis --- the Republicans.

A Warrior Evolves

“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” Matthew 7:6

What do you call a man who first served his country for 37 years in the military, with two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star with a Combat "V," and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry; and then further served his country for 31 additional years in Congress?

If you're a Republican swine whose closest encounter with war is trying to prevent your local TV station from airing "Saving Private Ryan," then you call John Murtha a coward. But this may be John Murtha's bravest moment. The old soldier has come full circle. The idealism and arrogance of youth has given way to the wisdom and clarity of age and experience. The realization that the deaths of 2000 young American soldiers, and the deaths of tens of thousand of Iraqi civilians, are just so much collateral damage to the men in power, the real cowards, who roll relentessly over anyone and anything in their path, amassing wealth and power, not even bothering to wash the blood from their hands.

John Murtha looks into the eyes of wounded soldiers today and finally sees his dying buddies in Viet Nam. He's come full circle and cannot sit by quietly while another generation is damaged and discarded. I only hope that the swine who turned on Representative Murtha and tried to tear him and his pearls of wisdom to pieces will recognize the evil in themselves and jump headlong over a cliff, just like it says in the good book.

Senator Durbin was Right

Anyone who slammed the senior senator from Illinois for calling into question the Bush/Cheney torture policy owes him an apology. Not only is that dick, Cheney, trying to strongarm Congress into looking the other way while our designated torturers do his dirty work, the United States of America is shanghai-ing suspected terrorist types and smuggling them to countries where they can be secretly tortured. "Black sites" in countries that allow torture...countries like, oh...POLAND.

...the CIA is maintaining secret facilities outside the U.S. where it is holding suspected terrorists. The point of these extra-territorial holding pens... is "to hold and interrogate suspected terrorists for as long as necessary and without restrictions imposed by the U.S. legal system or even by the military tribunals established for prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay."

Wait a minute...so what the CIA is doing to these suspected terrorists is illegal in the U.S., and probably illegal in other western democracies like ROMANIA and POLAND. But somehow what Dick Durbin said was going way too far and he was forced to apologize on the floor of the Senate?

Don't even get me started on why a blowjob in the privacy of your oval office = impeachment, but stealing two elections; disenfranchising millions of voters; allowing a major terrorist attack to occur on U.S. soil; invading two countries, the second invasion occurring after cooking pre-war intelligence, lying mightily and often to Congress and the American people about said intelligence; detaining and torturing countless innocent people; revealing the identity of a covert CIA operative, and thus compromising national security in an attempt to destroy a whistleblower; failing tremendously and on worldwide television to respond to thousands of American citizens left stranded and without food or water in the wake of the worst hurricane disaster in our history (and that's just off the top of my head) = diddly-squat.

Give 'em Hell, Harry!

I guess a kick in the pants feels like a slap in the face if you're Bill Frist. But if you've become accustomed to Democrats rolling over at the slightest breeze it must come as a shock when all it takes are good old fashioned rules and the truth to call you to account. Harry Reid invoked little-used Rule 21 to force the Senate into closed session on Tuesday, but not before publicly blistering the Republicans with a laundry list of derelictions of duty:

Unfortunately the unwillingness of the Republican-controlled Congress to exercise its oversight responsibilities is not limited to just Iraq. We see it with respect to the prisoner abuse scandal. We see it with respect to Katrina. And we see it with respect to the cronyism and corruption that permeates this Administration.

Even Lou Dobbs can read the manual:

Ed, a couple of points if I may. One, you suggested the Senate melted down today. There are those who would argue that the Senate began doing its job today.

As that other Harry put it, "just give 'em the truth, and they'll think it's hell."

Epistolary Fun

(Thanks to Mark and Spence)

Letters of support received by I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby:

Dear Scooter,

Dick tells me you were on his staff or something, and that you were having some kind of law thing. Jeez, I'm really sorry about that. Boy oh Boy - I cannot even begin to tell you what it's been like for me here lately - what with the tragedy in New Orleans (poor, poor Brownie), that whole 'war thing' and then that nice judge lady who up and quit on me, this place is in shambles! Anyway, listen, if you get through this thing, I may have something else lined up for you, so try to pay attention to all the legal stuff when you're in court, it'll make the confirmation hearings better.

- The Prez

Dear Scooter,

What a travesty of justice! You train someone from scratch in the black arts, share with them the ecstasy of the hunt and the glory of the kill, and then BAM! Some uppity prosecutor goes and unloads a round of buckshot in you! Truly a shame. That having been said, I need you to understand this - if you turn on me, I will gut you like a Wyoming trout! I will hunt you down like an elk and fire a crossbow into your heart. Otherwise - all the best!

- Dick Cheney

Dearest Loving Scooter,

In the wilds of Connecticut where you vacation, the poplars are just turning to the amber hues of autumn. They all turn as if on cue, because their roots are as deeply connected as you and I. We have shared wonderful moments together, and please know that I will wait for you - however long it takes.

Lovingly - Judith Miller

ps - Most of the guards are pleasant, but watch out for Johnson - he can be a real bear in the morning!

Hey Scoot -

I call top bunk!

- Tom Delay

Dear Scooter -

I saw you on TV - it's made me see you in a whole new light! Gosh - you're famous now! I think you're the best - the absolute best. I hope you know that I think you did a fantastic job and I am so so so proud of you. Please write me as much as possible, and I'll keep the autographed photo you gave me last Christmas right by my bed.

- Harriet Miers

Scooter -

Tom's crazy if he thinks he's getting the top bunk. I outrank him. Besides, he was like a bug killer before politics - I'm a Doctor! Plus, I don't snore.

- Bill Frist

Dear Mr.. Libby -

Thank you Thank You Thank you! This has been a great week for us. Now if we could only find a way to capitalize on all of this. Some kind of message or something.

- Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi