whats wrong with this administration?

they're living high on the hog, while on the job.

a victory for America

WASHINGTON — With barely a word about it, on Friday workers at the Justice Department removed the blue drapes that had famously covered two scantily clad statues for the last 3 1/2 years.

"Spirit of Justice," with one breast exposed and her arms raised, and the bare-chested male "Majesty of Law" basked in the late afternoon light of Justice's ceremonial Great Hall.
--ap WIRE

now that john asscroft is gone. the spirit of justice and the majesty of law can be seen in all their beauty. only to john ashcroft, would justice and law be ugly.

Quote of the Day

Businesses can not run this country.
People only can run this country.
--quasar

the difference between democrats and republicons

democrats when they're rich, help the poor.
republicons when they're rich, fuck the poor.

Joke of the Century

this has to be it folx. nothing ever has come this way that has screamed WINNER!! like this one.

Asked if he disputes the memo's claim, Cheney said, "Of course. The memo was written sometime prior to when we actually got involved in Iraq.

"And remember what happened after the supposed memo was written. We went to the United Nations. We got a unanimous vote out of the Security Council for a resolution calling on Saddam Hussein to come clean and comply with the UN Security Council resolution. We did everything we could to resolve this without having to use military force. We gave him one last chance even, and asked him to step down before we launched military operations.

--source

proof is in the pudding they say

and there ain't no pudding on the side of red.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A small group of US lawmakers paid homage to US troops who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan by reading their names aloud on the floor of the House of Representatives.
...
An aide said several Republicans had been asked to take part in the reading, but just one, conservative Walter Jones of North Carolina, had signed on.
...
Some Republican lawmakers reportedly have dismissed the event as a publicity stunt, but Emanuel insisted on US television Wednesday that he was motivated by respect for the service members' sacrifices.

"Republicans may want to say what they want to say. We've invited them to join. There will be people there to support the war, people who don't support the war," Emanuel told CNN television.

"It won't be about the war. It will be about the troops, and that's what we're going to do."

--source

they can't tell the difference, unless THEY are leading the band.

Joke of the Day

WASHINGTON, June 23 (Agence France-Presse) - Vice President Dick Cheney said on Thursday that prisoners at the detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had everything they could possibly want and were well fed and well treated as they lived in the "tropics."

--source

if ever there was a personification of lucifer himself, it's name would be richard cheney.

the memories of baghdad bob are flashing through my mind

this should also be made JOKE OF THE DAY.

"Any who say that we've lost this war, or that we're losing this war, are wrong. We are not," said Rumsfeld, who appeard with his top military commanders at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

--SOURCE

my ltte made it on the same day

as harold hopp's .... and get this, it concerned the same topic: the DSM. the downing street memo, for you neophytes.

http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2005/06/22/opinion/doc42b8e4444a7a1024620397.txt

i called harold hopp after i got the paper, and talked to him. a nice gent. definitely not a placard carrying activist, but he updates the iraqi war dead daily on a poster in front of his house.

i so wanted to do something like that.

and b back to jack

and for me to remember it and display it proudly:

"I hate to ask you for your help with something so silly but I've been nominated for membership in the Cosmos Club, which is a very distinguished club in Washington, DC, comprised of Nobel Prize winners, etc.," Abramoff wrote. "Problem for me is that most prospective members have received awards and I have received none. I was wondering if you thought it possible that I could put that I have received an award from Toward Tradition with a sufficiently academic title, perhaps something like Scholar of Talmudic Studies?"

[...]

The rabbi, conservative radio host Daniel Lapin, gave his blessing. "I just need to know what needs to be produced," he wrote. "Letters? Plaques?"

--slate's today's papers

did they thinkn iraq would take our mind off of afghanistan?

Nobody has much information on what seems to have been a big battle in Afghanistan. Somewhere between 40 (U.S. said) and 75 (Afghan officials' count) insurgents were reportedly killed along with about 10 Afghan soldiers and police. Five GIs were wounded, and two U.S. choppers were hit but made it back to base. The best dispatch is a lengthy wire piece inside the Post. Meanwhile, a U-2 spy plane that had been over Afghanistan crashed while trying to land in the United Arab Emirates. The pilot was killed; there were no reports of hostile fire.

--source

no wonder they called it "no child left behind"

they are going to know everything they need to know about each and every student in school.

thanks to nclb.

The Defense Department began working yesterday with a private marketing firm to create a database of high school students ages 16 to 18 and all college students to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches.

--WaPo

jack abramoff, jackoff extradordinaire

As the Wall Street Journal describes atop its world-wide newsbox—and others front—a Senate hearing aired details aplenty of super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff's bilking of Indian tribes. Among other things, Abramoff and his business partner took millions from the tribes supposedly for lobbying, instead funneled through some bogus non-profits and ultimately used it for such worthy causes as financing "sniper" training for Israeli settlers and footing the bill for a golf trip taken by one Tom DeLay.

It's all a bit complex, but padding billable hours wasn't. "Make sure you are able to track the time on the bill during the month to be sure we hit the $150K minimum," Abramoff wrote to one employee, who replied, "You had only 2 hours. We are not even close to this number." Abramoff answered, "Add 60 hours for me."

As the Journal emphasizes, the uncovered e-mails also suggest that organizations run by conservative All-Stars Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist were also used in Abramoff's apparent laundering scheme.

--source

it's how they operate. they need money, they steal it. business as usual. move along, nothing to see here. move along.

Letter Of The Day II

this is making up for yesterday.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley in the June 16 Register advocates extending the Social Security retirement age to 69. Why stop there? Why not simply have people work until they die?

Instead of extending the retirement age to fix the Social Security "crisis," why not roll back President Bush's tax breaks for the wealthy? Why not raise the cap on Social Security so those sitting in plush offices pay their fair share?

Ending corporate welfare might also put more money back into the public's coffers. Maybe it is time to retire Grassley (on his ample congressional pension benefits). He certainly doesn't sound like a friend of middle- and lower-income Iowans.
-Bruce McCabe,
Des Moines.

attribution

Letter Of The Day

The U.S. Army is making do with less-than-qualified recruits. The U.S. military has stopped battalion commanders from dismissing new recruits with drug abuse, alcohol problems, poor fitness or pregnancy.

The reality is clear: The U.S. Army managed only 73 percent of its recruiting target in February, 68 percent in March and 57 percent in April and won't release recruiting results for May. Keeping unqualified recruits just to make the numbers look good poses a risk to our national security.

In wartime, we need the best recruits - not the worst. Is this the way to run a war and an army?

Could this worsening recruiting crisis mean there is a military draft on the horizon?
-Frank P. Belcastro,
Dubuque.

attribution

out of the mouths of babes

comes a whole slew of bright and vivacious youngsters ready and eagerly awaiting their turn at governing this country.

an example?

The Wisconsin Assembly passed a ban on the "morning-after pill" at college campuses.

If passed by the state Senate and approved by the governor, the University of Wisconsin Health Care centers would not be allowed to prescribe or distribute the drug. It's absurd that women would be denied a legal contraceptive from one of their health-care providers.

We need to stop confusing morality with legality. If a woman wants to use an emergency contraceptive, the state has no right to restrict her access to it. The question of whether this method of birth control is right or wrong belongs to the individual it affects, not to state lawmakers.

The United States was founded by men who were fed up with a country where the laws were dictated by the morality of a king and his church. Our founding fathers created this great country with laws to ensure that her citizens would not fall victim to moral whims of the few. The Wisconsin Assembly has clearly violated the very thing it was created to protect.
- Sasha Kemmet, Ames

attribution

you should go read the page, it's chock full of examples

an open memo to don imus:

hey i-man, i agree with you a lot of the time, and there's a good amount of time i'm shaking my head wondering just how in the fuck you could do whatever it was that made me shake my head.

but i respect you and your position. and there's not many i can say that about. especially when we're on the opposite sides of so much.

however, your penis-head producer bernie needs a quick swift kick in the butt for being just about the most obnoxious character on tv.

by day, democrats, by night, republicon nazis

god these people make me sick to my stomach. if ever there were a doubt as to the growing nazi camp right here in the united states of america, there won't be after you read this:

Layton changes ordinances regarding residential signs

By Paul Rolly / Salt Lake Tribune

Since Mike Norton, of Layton, began displaying the pictures of American soldiers killed in Iraq on an illuminated sign in his front yard, his home has been vandalized, cars have stopped in front of his home and honked horns in the early morning hours and he has received anonymous harassing phone calls.

Now the city of Layton has gotten into the act.

Norton, who was told by a city official last winter that the sign in his yard did not violate zoning ordinances, received a letter from the Layton City Attorney's Office recently informing him that, upon further review, the sign does violate the ordinance and he would have 10 days to take it down.

The sign currently contains 1,715 postage-stamp-sized pictures of each dead soldier that Norton downloads from CNN's Web site. The number is updated whenever there is a new casualty. Above the pictures is a large bold-faced headline denoting the latest number of Americans killed in Iraq. Next to the sign is an American flag.

Norton says that by day, many people, including veterans, stop by and thank him for keeping the sacrifices of the soldiers and their families in the public eye. But by night he is harassed by anonymous antagonists, including one who shined a spotlight into his 6-year-old daughter's window.

The letter, from Layton Assistant City Attorney Stephen Garside, said the city inspector who told Norton six months ago that his sign was OK used the wrong code section in reviewing the sign.

Norton responded by telling the city to cite him, because he could find nothing in the code to indicate a violation and, he noted, the city code specifically exempts memorials. His sign is a memorial to the soldiers.

Norton has obtained an attorney and is prepared to fight. "I will go to jail before I will pay a fine for displaying a sign that honors the war dead," he said.

--source

the bold-faced type makes QUOTE OF THE DAY.

Letter Of The Day

has to be mine, of course, but there's another one included, because it ran right below mine, and was about the same subject matter (get that feather in your cap, and i'll see you in heaven)

since the words of the first are mine, i will not italicize them.

I'm wondering, would the Globe have endorsed George Bush Jr. had they known the following:

1. That Mr. Bush knew Saddam Hussein was no threat to our country months prior to invading;

2. That Mr. Bush decided to use force to overthrow him regardless; and

3. That Mr. Bush was "fixing" the intelligence to sell the impending invasion to the American public.

Now that we know the truth with the release of the Downing Street Memo, and we continue to lose dozens of soldiers a week in the same war Mr. Bush announced as being mission accomplished over two years ago, is there any doubt to the testament that Mr. Bush suckered half the American population and obviously one small town newspaper?

and now for the second letter:

Truth became war casualty

By HAROLD W. HOPP, Mason City

The Downing Street Memo informed the American public that British Prime Minister Tony Blair had promised President Bush in April 2002 he would join the United States in a war against Iraq.

British intelligence chief Richard Dearlove reported that Bush wanted to remove Saddam Hussein through military action and the intelligence and facts were being "fixed" around that policy. This was nearly a year before the pre-emptive strike was made on March 19, 2003, against Iraq.

The reader might be interested in comments made by Mickey Herskowitz after conversations he had with George W. Bush in 1999, when he was hired to write an autobiography of Bush during his campaign for the presidency.

Herskowitz said Bush was thinking about invading Iraq already at that time. He told Herskowitz: "One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander in chief. My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it. If I have a chance to invade, if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it."

The horrible events of Sept. 11, 2001, and the resultant support for Americans engendered by them at that time provided an opportunity for the president to be seen as the "great leader and commander in chief."

So to gain support from American people who were not convinced that war was necessary, it became the hallmark of the president's administration to appeal to our fear and our gullibility by lying to us about Hussein's ties to al-Qaida and his weapons of mass destruction. Truth became a casualty of this war, along with the 1,914 American dead and the 12,896 more wounded thus far. What a terrible price to pay for the Napoleonic complex of one man.

-source

huh? can someone explain this to me?

again from today's papers:

The WP goes above the fold with a profile of a booming industry: lobbying. There are now about 35,000 registered lobbyists in D.C., twice the number in 2000. "We're trying to take advantage of the fact that Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House," said Hewlett-Packard's top lobby man "There is an opportunity here for the business community to make its case and be successful."

to "MAKE" it's case? they wasted the last 6 years to "MAKE" their case.

an open message to the NYT:

stuff it. you've lost your grande glamour years ago, and your age is showing as you wimper down journalism lane.

The NYT stuffs word of a classified CIA report that says Iraq is, surprise surprise, serving as Terrorist University for the latest generation of jihadists, some of whom will return home eager to show off their new skills. The Times has no quotes from the report; it was described generally to the paper by officials from three "different government organizations." The latest Newsweek mentions the same report and says CIA analysts refer to the Iraqi alumni issue as the "Class of '05 problem."
--courtesy of slate's today's papers

that iraq would blow up in george bush jr's face is icing on the cake. but this country is in deep shit with all these new terrorists now having something to fight for.

doesn't cbs get it???

that with that 'bone' you so eloquently put it, democrats are obstructionists for not giving the republicons what they want.

can they get any more infantile?

they are going to brand the democrats obstuctionist unless they get their way.

we need to show Joe Blow America that we are PROTECTING THEM from the harm of these republicon proposed actions.

howard, are ya listenin there bud?

his numbers are low, so he appeals to the exciteable

as one guy put it: gays are the new n*ggers

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Reviving a major plank of his re-election campaign, President Bush called for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage Tuesday.

The president’s address to the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention — the fourth year in a row he has spoken to the conservative evangelical gathering — was crafted to rally the social religious conservatives who make up a crucial part of Bush’s governing coalition. He restated his commitment to issues dear to conservatives’ hearts, notably his opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion and research on human embryonic stem cells — a stance he calls the “culture of life.”

“We will continue to build a culture of life in America, and America will be better off for it,” Bush said by satellite hookup from the White House.

--source

what a pathetic little man. sore about being unpopular, he's gonna have to pick on someone, and it might as well be gays. this is what brats do. they act out.

what the hell is all this missing boy about?

i mean, to get national exposure as THE TOP STORY, well.... just how much money changed hands over this one is beyond me. but you can bet your ass that some did.

FARPOINT:p.s.a.

if you didn't sign john conyer's letter to george bush jr., then you wouldn't understand. this could probably go under DSM:Watch

Thanks to your help, and the more than 560,000 individuals who signed this letter, the mainstream media felt compelled to cover this event. The room was packed with television cameras and there was significant coverage in national newspapers and radio networks. After the hearing I hand delivered the list of signatures along with a letter to the president signed by 122 Members of Congress demanding answers, and led a rally outside the White House.

We still have much more to do to make President Bush answer the questions raised by the Downing Street Minutes. Much work remains for us to bring this issue to the attention of all Americans.
--John Conyers (via email)

hop on over to his website at http://johnconyers.com to find out what additional steps we are taking and how you can help on this issue of vital constitutional importance.

and to prove we're not all about doom & gloom (read: bush)

the feel good story of the weeQ:

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - Police say three lions rescued a 12-year-old girl kidnapped by men who wanted to force her into marriage, chasing off her abductors and guarding her until police and relatives tracked her down in a remote corner of Ethiopia.

The men had held the girl for seven days, repeatedly beating her, before the lions chased them away and guarded her for half a day before her family and police found her, Sergeant Wondimu Wedajo said Tuesday by telephone from the provincial capital of Bita Genet, about 560km west of the capital, Addis Ababa.

"They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest," Wondimu said, adding he did not know whether the lions were male or female.

'A young girl whimpering could be mistaken for the mewing sound from a lion cub'

News of the June 9 rescue was slow to filter out from Kefa Zone in south-western Ethiopia.

"If the lions had not come to her rescue then it could have been much worse. Often these young girls are raped and severely beaten to force them to accept the marriage," he said.

--source

HYPOCRISY ALERT

A researcher retained secretly by the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, to monitor the "Now" program with Bill Moyers for political objectivity last year, worked for 20 years at a journalism center founded by the American Conservative Union and a conservative columnist, an official at the journalism center said on Monday.
--source

Letter Of The Day

Roses twice over to Richard Doak for his June 6 and June 13 columns. Both columns should be required reading for Congress and the executive branch.

The June 6 column on Social Security makes a convincing argument that those who cry the sky is falling have their attention focused on the wrong issue. Doak offers three areas where they should focus: federal deficits, education and improving the infrastructure.

The Bush administration and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley are key to getting the national attention on these issues and bringing forth financially sound, fair and meaningful solutions in these areas. As Doak states, take care of the economy and you automatically take care of Social Security. The silence in response to Doak's column by those who cry the sky is falling is deafening. Could it be that they know he is correct, and their agenda is something other than saving Social Security?

The June 13 column was a timely presentation of how we have arrived at socialism for CEOs and capitalism for workers. The Bush administration offers us a tax structure that pushes us farther down this road, a hands-off approach to any regulation of businesses and total silence on the true crisis with Medicare/Medicaid that is breathing down our necks, which for many of the poor and very poor of our country are essential.

For the rich, what happens with Medicare and Medicaid is of little or no concern. President Bush has spent an inordinate amount of time (and self-proclaimed political capital) on the wrong issue.
-Wayne Woodworth,
West Des Moines.

--attribution

the perfect example of the poor feeding the rich

don't see it?

About four evenings a week, L.J. Twyner, a Newton physician, enjoys dinner paid for by drug companies. Other perks have included trips to bars and in at least one instance a visit to a club featuring nude dancers, according to a report in the Des Moines Sunday Register by reporter Clark Kauffman.

After a night of free food and fun with drug-company representatives, he wakes up the next morning and goes to work. His responsibilities include prescribing drugs to patients in his care.

--source

it works this way. poor people pay excessive drug prices, which in turn is used feed doctors.

ahh, the mirror of time

it reflects even the bad past

For Watergate and Deep Throat buffs, the Post fronts a column one feature on "The Two Lives of Mark Felt." The famous Watergate source is shown to be a shrewd careerist bent on taking down the Nixon administration, which he saw as encroaching on the FBI's sovereign territory after the death of J. Edgar Hoover.

again, today's papers gets the nod for the heads up.

why i despise pakistan as much as i despised afghanistan

The new, sleeker terrorist training paradigm has meant increased recruitment for the al-Qaida-associated groups, several of which are tolerated and even relied upon for military support by Pakistan's government. The result, in the words of one senior U.S. official, has been camps that are "flourish[ing] as never before," even while Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has been portrayed as an ally in the fight against terrorism. One FBI official said the policing of these groups has become "exponentially harder than it was even just a few years ago."

thanks to slate's today's papers for the heads up.

and now, a Public Service Annoluncement

SUPPORT THIS LEGISLATION:

That the Committee on the Judiciary is directed to investigate and report to the House of Representatives whether sufficient grounds exist to impeach George W. Bush, President of the United States. Upon completion of such investigation, that Committee shall report thereto, including, if the Committee so determines, articles of impeachment.

http://www.usalone.com/downingstreet_np.htm

one click to send a letter to
Washington Post ombudsman
New York Times ombudsman
ABC Nightline
NBC Nightly News
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ABC Evening News
CNN

one click girls. get busy.

Quote of the Day

"for those who believe in creationish - at what point did evolution stop?"

--quasar

Letter Of The Day

today's winner doesn't come from an individual, but rather a group of individuals. those at the des moines register:

Congress scored abysmally low approval ratings in recent polls. It's not hard to see why. Neither lawmakers nor the Bush administration is focused on the problems people care most about.

And when Congress does take up an important national topic, the legislation quickly becomes larded with favors to every special interest in Washington, tucked away in some massive, indecipherable bill.

So it is with energy policy, which the Senate began considering last week. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley is helping make the Senate version superior to a version passed earlier by the House, but it remains an open question whether the final bill will be better than having no bill at all. The times demand an unwavering national commitment to achieving energy independence. This hodgepodge isn't it.

So it is with energy policy, which the Senate began considering last week. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley is helping make the Senate version superior to a version passed earlier by the House, but it remains an open question whether the final bill will be better than having no bill at all. The times demand an unwavering national commitment to achieving energy independence. This hodgepodge isn't it.

President Bush has been trying to get Congress to pass a so-called energy bill for three years - legislation that was hatched by Vice President Dick Cheney after secret meetings with energy-industry lobbyists. It's called an energy policy, but it's little more than a grab-bag of tax goodies for various segments of the energy industry.

Then there are irrelevant provisions, such as shielding the makers of the gasoline additive MTBE from liability for harm caused by their poisonous product. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas is reported to have vowed the legislation will not pass without that provision, providing protection for the oil companies. So much for putting the national interest ahead of special interests.

The test of whether the legislation can fairly be said to establish a national energy policy is whether the policy is clearly understood and the legislation is focused single-mindedly on its goal. Instead, this legislation is ill-defined, scattering tax incentives hither and yon. It has conflicting purposes of encouraging use of alternative fuels while at the same time expanding the consumption of traditional fuels.

Grassley, as head of the Senate Finance Committee, has shaped the tax provisions in the Senate version of the bill, and his committee has at least improved the focus. The Senate version would provide $16 billion in tax breaks over 10 years, many of them intended to encourage conservation and alternative fuels.

Alternative energy production in Iowa - including ethanol, wind, biomass and energy from manure - stands to benefit.

Still, some of the provisions aren't new. They merely extend existing tax credits. Moreover, it's doubtful that tax credits - especially those scattered widely - are an effective use of public funds.

They will add several more pages of complexity to the tax code at a time when the administration's next big initiative is supposed to be tax simplification. Go figure.

If the goal is U.S. energy independence, the $16 billion could be more effectively spent by concentrating it in a Manhattan Project-type national effort to achieve breakthroughs in promising alternative fuels.

That should be coupled with efforts to cut back on petroleum consumption until the day comes when the nation's motorists can be free of it. The most effective conservation measure would be a market-driven one - a steep tax on gasoline and gas-guzzling vehicles. That would not only encourage more fuel efficiency and less driving-intensive lifestyles, but also provide revenue to cut federal deficits and pay for research into energy alternatives.

An energy tax would be unpopular among motorists already burdened by record gas prices, but as a policy tool for achieving energy independence, it would make far more sense than sprinkling tax favors among the energy lobbyists.

Passing a bunch of tax breaks and calling the result an energy policy doesn't make it so.

--attribution

watching larry king live, without larry king

and we got this numbskill there challening the great vanessa redgrave.

he's no match for her. and he slimes the larry king brand by trying.

basically, there is no body better than ms. redgrave to give an accurate picture of this time in history.

dammm, from worldnetdaily, we got this

In a live, unscientific Internet poll, MSNBC readers are overwhelmingly saying yes.

With more than 6,000 votes recorded, the survey shows a lopsided 94 percent believe Bush misled the American people, with only 6 percent saying no.

i can't believe it either.

The live poll is a companion to an Associated Press story about a call from Rep. Charles Rangel, D-NY, for an official inquiry on the topic.

read more about conyers and the DSM

HYPOCRISY ALERT

GOD THESE PEOPLE MAKE MY SKIN CRAWL

The Rev. Matthew Wentz, former pastor of the Church of Christ in Le Mars and a plaintiff in the case, described the ruling as "very scary."

"There is a big concern nationally about activist judges making laws from the bench, and it seemed to us that Judge Neary was doing just that," he said. "Tolerance is all well and good, but this is a pretty big blow to our overall society."

Joining several Republican state lawmakers in bringing the lawsuit was U.S. Rep. Steve King, who said the justices shirked their constitutional duty.

"If I and other legislators who joined me to rein in the runaway judiciary did not have standing to defend the law in court, then who would?" he asked.

--source

who would? YOU WOULDN'T. steve king needs to crawl back under the rock he came from.

Quote of the Day

"It would be strange indeed and contrary to our notions of separation of powers if we were to recognize that legislators have standing to intervene in lawsuits just because they disagree with a court's interpretation of a statute,"
--Chief Justice Louis Lavorato wrote in his decision to let stand a divorice granted to a lesbian couple.

attribution

Joke of the Day

comes to us in the form of a letter. one written by, i'm only assuming here, by a forlorn'd girl who was given up by a gay guy. jennifer sure sounds like a perfect name for a hag.

The June 13 article about a parade in which persons in the gay and lesbian lifestyles celebrate their sexuality in downtown Des Moines quoted a homosexual participant as saying, "No matter what anyone says, God made me this way. And God does not make junk."

I completely agree that God does not make junk. According to the Bible, homosexuals are deeply loved by God. However, his statement that God made him this way (homosexual) is the part that the Bible does not agree with.

The Bible says that homosexuality is a behavior and that God can help those involved to see themselves and relate to others in ways that are biblically healthy.

God loves homosexuals no matter what, but he doesn't love the pain and hurt that comes with calling homosexuality inborn and believing you have no choice in your thoughts, feelings and actions.

-Jennifer Goodell,
Shenandoah.

attribution

looks like a genuine frivolous lawsuit to me?

how about you?

In their lawsuit, six state legislators, Congressman Steve King, a Le Mars church and its pastor argued the judge did not have authority to grant the divorce because Iowa law does not recognize same-sex marriage. They contended the judge's action undermines marriage between a man a woman and that, by granting a dissolution, the judge usurped the Legislature's power to define the law of marriage.

The Supreme Court took considerable pains to point out that it was not ruling on the legal merits of Neary's action. Rather, the court concluded that the plaintiffs had no standing to sue because they are not individually directly affected by the dissolution.

--souce

this was a case that got the reich all riled up, including that embarrassment to iowa politics, steve king. ever notice everything they go after, backfires in their faces? between their involvement in schiavo case, and now this.... makes ya wonder, just what have the republicans accomplished at all.

things i haven't said.... yet

if i can make qwest get on bended knee, mediacom i suspect would be half the effort.

note to cbs news:

i often chide bob schieffer, and in effect, cbs as a whole, in this space. but tonite, i can not chide, as much as express my appreciation.

appreciation in that you opened my eyes with the end of your report on cunningham. that house democrats didn't have anything to say about it.

THAT'S THE PROBLEM FOLX! get these timid jokers out of government until we clear the road for them to be sailing through on courtesy and generousity. republicons who have control OF EVERY BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT, haven't done what democrats are known to be capable of doing. please., pLEASE.... staNDUP and don't let these pigs run havoc with our country.

where's howard dean?

did he create his leadership by coming in with a bang (i.e. make yourself newsworthy), only to be gone with barely a whimper?

c'mon howard, you're not wrong for making headlines. you got our message out, even if it didnt share the same style, there's a roadmap you should have. it'll keep you on message, on topic, and on the winning side.

DSM-Watch

the conyers hearing is getting repeated:

This program is scheduled to re-air on Friday, June 17th at 8pm ET on C-SPAN2. Please check our TV Schedules at c-span.org for programming information (please remember the schedule is subject to change).

SET YOUR DVRs!!

john conyers, you should be shouting from the mountain tops

as a fan of letters to the newspaper editors, i feel obligated to promulgate the really good ones.
the letter courtesy of rawstory:

Mr. Michael Abramowitz, National Editor; Mr. Michael Getler, Ombudsman; Mr. Dana Milbank; The Washington Post, 1150 15th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20071

Dear Sirs:

I write to express my profound disappointment with Dana Milbank's June 17 report, "Democrats Play House to Rally Against the War," which purports to describe a Democratic hearing I chaired in the Capitol yesterday. In sum, the piece cherry-picks some facts, manufactures others out of whole cloth, and does a disservice to some 30 members of Congress who persevered under difficult circumstances, not of our own making, to examine a very serious subject: whether the American people were deliberately misled in the lead up to war. The fact that this was the Post's only coverage of this event makes the journalistic shortcomings in this piece even more egregious.

In an inaccurate piece of reporting that typifies the article, Milbank implies that one of the obstacles the Members in the meeting have is that "only one" member has mentioned the Downing Street Minutes on the floor of either the House or Senate. This is not only incorrect but misleading. In fact, just yesterday, the Senate Democratic Leader, Harry Reid, mentioned it on the Senate floor. Senator Boxer talked at some length about it at the recent confirmation hearing for the Ambassador to Iraq. The House Democratic Leader, Nancy Pelosi, recently signed on to my letter, along with 121 other Democrats asking for answers about the memo. This information is not difficult to find either. For example, the Reid speech was the subject of an AP wire service report posted on the Washington Post website with the headline "Democrats Cite Downing Street Memo in Bolton Fight". Other similar mistakes, mischaracterizations and cheap shots are littered throughout the article.

The article begins with an especially mean and nasty tone, claiming that House Democrats "pretended" a small conference was the Judiciary Committee hearing room and deriding the decor of the room. Milbank fails to share with his readers one essential fact: the reason the hearing was held in that room, an important piece of context. Despite the fact that a number of other suitable rooms were available in the Capitol and House office buildings, Republicans declined my request for each and every one of them. Milbank could have written about the perseverance of many of my colleagues in the face of such adverse circumstances, but declined to do so. Milbank also ignores the critical fact picked up by the AP, CNN and other newsletters that at the very moment the hearing was scheduled to begin, the Republican Leadership scheduled an almost unprecedented number of 11 consecutive floor votes, making it next to impossible for most Members to participate in the first hour and one half of the hearing.

In what can only be described as a deliberate effort to discredit the entire hearing, Milbank quotes one of the witnesses as making an anti-semitic assertion and further describes anti-semitic literature that was being handed out in the overflow room for the event. First, let me be clear: I consider myself to be friend and supporter of Israel and there were a number of other staunchly pro-Israel members who were in attendance at the hearing. I do not agree with, support, or condone any comments asserting Israeli control over U.S. policy, and I find any allegation that Israel is trying to dominate the world or had anything to do with the September 11 tragedy disgusting and offensive.

That said, to give such emphasis to 100 seconds of a 3 hour and five minute hearing that included the powerful and sad testimony (hardly mentioned by Milbank) of a woman who lost her son in the Iraq war and now feels lied to as a result of the Downing Street Minutes, is incredibly misleading. Many, many different pamphlets were being passed out at the overflow room, including pamphlets about getting out of the Iraq war and anti-Central American Free Trade Agreement, and it is puzzling why Milbank saw fit to only mention the one he did.

In a typically derisive and uninformed passage, Milbank makes much of other lawmakers calling me "Mr. Chairman" and says I liked it so much that I used "chairmanly phrases." Milbank may not know that I was the Chairman of the House Government Operations Committee from 1988 to 1994. By protocol and tradition in the House, once you have been a Chairman you are always referred to as such. Thus, there was nothing unusual about my being referred to as Mr. Chairman.

To administer his coup-de-grace, Milbank literally makes up another cheap shot that I "was having so much fun that [I] ignored aides' entreaties to end the session." This did not occur. None of my aides offered entreaties to end the session and I have no idea where Milbank gets that information. The hearing certainly ran longer than expected, but that was because so many Members of Congress persevered under very difficult circumstances to attend, and I thought - given that - the least I could do was allow them to say their piece. That is called courtesy, not "fun."

By the way, the "Downing Street Memo" is actually the minutes of a British cabinet meeting. In the meeting, British officials - having just met with their American counterparts - describe their discussions with such counterparts. I mention this because that basic piece of context, a simple description of the memo, is found nowhere in Milbank's article.

The fact that I and my fellow Democrats had to stuff a hearing into a room the size of a large closet to hold a hearing on an important issue shouldn't make us the object of ridicule. In my opinion, the ridicule should be placed in two places: first, at the feet of Republicans who are so afraid to discuss ideas and facts that they try to sabotage our efforts to do so; and second, on Dana Milbank and the Washington Post, who do not feel the need to give serious coverage on a serious hearing about a serious matter-whether more than 1700 Americans have died because of a deliberate lie. Milbank may disagree, but the Post certainly owed its readers some coverage of that viewpoint.

Sincerely,

John Conyers, Jr.

everybody now, stand up, go to your windows, stick your heads out and yell as loud as you can:

we are MAD AS HELL,
and we're NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANY MORE

The GOOD NEWS post of the WeeQ

Forty-two percent of those polled said they approved of the way Mr. Bush is handling his job, a marked decline from his 51 percent rating in the aftermath of the November election, when he embarked on an ambitious second-term agenda led by the overhaul of Social Security. Sixteen months before the midterm elections, Congress fared even worse in the survey, with the approval of just 33 percent of Americans, and nearly three-fourths saying Congress did not share their priorities.

--nytimes

when will America learn. VOTE DEMOCRAT and we won't have these problems.

Letter Of The WeeQ

How many real schools are operating in Iraq? What percentage of Iraqi school-age children are attending these schools? What percent of prewar electricity do the Iraqis currently have available?

Eighteen months ago, President Bush asked for and received tens of billions of dollars to provide this humanitarian assistance. Does the press provide no attempt at accountability?
-Mike Montross,
Winterset.

--attribution

Letter Of The Day

it was a bit hard, given the des moines register's publishing of a lot of letters about howard dean. but i picked this one. read more at the link below.

Republicans called Bill Clinton every name in the book but human for eight years, and for the last five years they have called Democrats unpatriotic, un-American and non-Christian.

Yet, when Howard Dean makes any comment about the Republicans, it makes front-page news. Why?

Republicans hold the presidency, the House and the Senate and for the last five years all we hear is that the Democrats are holding up their agenda. If Republicans can't get their agenda passed, they only have to look inside their party to find out why.
-Ann Lyness,
Boone.
--attribution

DSM-Watch

WASHINGTON - Some congressional Democrats are insisting that the White House provide more information about what led to the decision to go to war in Iraq, citing a British document known as the "Downing Street memo" as evidence intelligence was distorted.
--source

about time. that liberal bias in the media was choking me.

abu ghraib as art?

i'm not sure where i stand on this.

the fact that an artist can make money on the misery of others, just doesn't sit well with me.

however, his images are startling.

see for yourself HERE, and HERE

a taste: