"2245 Dead -- How many more?"

That was the "slogan" on Cindy Sheehan's T-shirt. If that's a slogan then the Democrats should adopt it.

Honor The Troops: Throw the Mothers of the Deceased in Jail

Yup they did it.

Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a fallen soldier in Iraq who reinvigorated the anti-war movement, was arrested and removed from the House gallery Tuesday night just before President Bush's State of the Union address, a police spokeswoman said.

Sheehan, who was invited to attend the speech by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., was charged with demonstrating in the Capitol building, said Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. The charge was later changed to unlawful conduct, Schneider said. Both charges are misdemeanors.

Sheehan was taken in handcuffs from the Capitol to police headquarters a few blocks away. Her case was processed as Bush spoke.

Schneider said Sheehan had worn a T-shirt with an anti-war slogan to the speech and covered it up until she took her seat. Police warned her that such displays were not allowed, but she did not respond, the spokeswoman said.

SOTU: He just won't say it

And it's over.

And you know that's not water he's drinking.

SOTU: Don't Say "Katrina"

Will he say it? He said "natural disasters."

Yeah Dems! Celebrate rebellion.

Here we go, health savings accounts. He can never say OBGYN ever again. I think my uterus just screamed.

Clean safe NUKULAR energy. Drink again.

There is nothing more ironic than hearing this man talk about rigorous math and science education. Look kiddies, you can be a drug-addled C- student and still be the leader of the free world.

Abstinence my ass. Condoms, birth control, and emergency contraception.

"Natural Disaster," NOT Katrina.

SOTU: The Wanking Continues

Freedom, liberty, democracy, repeat.

He's looking kind of cakey. Bad foundation.

Iran, oh brother, drinking more.

Roomie: "Who are these isolationists you keep talking about?"

I hope these standing ovations are hard on arthritic knees.

PATRIOT ACT. SIT DOWN.

Hillary's look of utter disdain just about killed me.

Oh no, here come the tears

Shameless creep. Using some dead soldier and his family to boost his approval rating.

Let's All Clap for Freedom!

Sit down, goddamit. Do Not Stand uP! Let's all clap for Evil!! Hey, I thought we weren't continuing reconstruction? Looks like Arlen Specter just got it--"my legacy will be...WHA!!!"

Shit

Is he about to have a stroke or what? Danger, danger, Will Robinson! 8:15 the first September the Eleventh mention

Does he Dye?

Looks a little less gray this evening. Only his hairdresser knows for sure.

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!"