Another heckuva job

So, the Bush administration thought they were being so-o-o-o-o clever by scheduling the Saddam trial verdict for two days prior to the mid-terms. They thought it would reinforce their "look how safe we've made you" theme. Instead, its going to reinforce the Democrat's "look how violent Iraq is" theme:

Many of Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs, along with some Shiites and Kurds, are predicting a firestorm of violence if the court sentences the ex-president to death, as is widely expected . . . But most Shiites, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, are likely to be enraged if he escapes the gallows.

So either way, Iraq will explode by Monday morning.

Horse rescue

BBC photos tell the story of the Dutch horse rescue, a story which has been reported around the world.


The horses were stranded at a farm north of Amsterdam when the land around them flooded.


The nearest land was only a few hundred metres away but there were fears that submerged barbed wire might hurt the horses if they tried to swim to safety.


Animal welfare officers and firefighters waded through the waters to map out an escape route.


Four women from a local riding club then led the herd to safety.


The one horse that failed to follow the herd was eventually brought to safety, but collapsed and needed attention from veterinarians. It is expected to recover completely.

Prophecy

Sorry for the lack of posts - I've been fighting a cold.
I couldn't help but notice this one -- considering today's events, Wolcott turns out to be a prophet:

. . . All Republican political figures are gay, especially the men. When President Bush insists on kissing one bald head after another, the psychosexual symbolism speaks for itself. He's planting his lips on big uncircumcised Kojak peckers. When Rush Limbaugh packs his Viagra and jets off on a tropical jaunt with the guys, it's assumed there are saucy wenches awaiting him under the sultry palms, but I wonder--I wonder if it's cabana boys making the hammock sway under the moonlight. Republican women--those masochistic saints--are more like Joan Allen playing Pat Nixon under layers of frosting, their rigid smiles forged by years of living a lie with a man infatuated with other men and too timid to take out a subscription to Details magazine, lest he be exposed. The closet in which he dwells doubles as a panic room with a convenient minibar, so that if he ever stumbles or strays, he can blame it on the creme de menthe, not the burning yearning of his heart. . .

Who's next?

Because of Iraq

These "VoteVets" ads are very strong and here's the best one yet.

Great line of the day

From the Comments on Steve Gilliard's story about how the the American government is now promoting a no-sex policy for young adults:

If you've reached the age of 25 without having lost your virginity, you don't exactly need lessons in how not to have sex. You're probably an expert at it.

CONGRESSMAN CALL ME

The bloggers are showing the Democrats how to fight back.

How the Republicans can win

Echidne writes:

Isn't it fascinating how everything bad is the fault of the powerless liberals and progressives? Everything. Iraq war is lost because of us. Fascism makes mousesteps forwards because of us. Even all Bush's errors are because he tries to rule like one of us.
The only solution is to put the liberals and progressives in power.

And then, obviously, the conservatives will think they are actually running everything!
Works for me...

Finding the wizard

Jamieon Foser from Media Matters writes an Open Letter to the "Gang of 500".
Here's the shorter version:

Scarecrow: . . . some people without brains do an awful lot of talking... don't they?
Dorothy: Yes, I guess you're right.

Science marches on

Blogs here and here and here are linking to this:

New Element on Periodic Table
A major research institution has just announced the discovery of the densest element yet known to science. The new element has been named "Bushcronium."
Bushcronium has one neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 311. These particles are held together by dark forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.
The symbol for Bushcronium is "W". Bushcronium's mass actually increases over time, as morons randomly interact with various elements in the atmosphere and become assistant deputy neutrons in a Bushcronium molecule, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to believe that Bushcronium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as "Critical Morass".
When catalyzed with money, Bushcronium activates Foxnewsium, an element that radiates orders of magnitude more energy, albeit as incoherent noise, since it has 1/2 as many peons but twice as many morons.

Stupid driving

Why would parents drive like this?:

. . . the car was trying to pass three other vehicles in a no-passing zone outside Henryville, Que., when it struck an oncoming vehicle.

Result: children orphaned.
There are times -- more often than I am aware of, probably -- when I drive poorly. But driving stupidly is another issue. Its the opposite of defensive driving; its offensive driving.
The worst offensive driving we ever saw was one summer day between Banff and Lake Louise - single lane, lots of curves, lots of RVs, lots of trucks -- and crazy people constantly pulling out to pass four, five, six vehicles at a stretch, relying on someone else to pull over and let them back into line or else for the oncoming traffic to hit the shoulder.
UPDATE: Commenter SouthernQuebec notes that police are now saying it was the other driver who was driving stupidly and caused the accident, not these parents. A tragedy either way, of course, but at least these poor people were not endangering their own children.

This is priceless

If you don't get MSNBC or watch Olbermann, enjoy!

Of course Dick Cheney doesn't support torture

...yeah, sure.

The October Surprise - Michael J. Fox

So who is the disgusting one -- Michael J. Fox, shaking and weaving as he pleads for America to support the research that may save his life? Or Rush Limbaugh, shaking and weaving as he mocks Fox's condition?
Republicans can whine all they want about how mean and tricky Michael J. Fox is, but Americans won't buy it.
Americans love underdogs. And they hate bullies.
This has great potential, I think, to turn into Schiavo Part Deux for the Republicans.
And it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch.
Remember how the Republicans all rushed back to Washington to generate some good publicity for themselves by "saving" Terri Schiavo from her husband and the legal system -- only to find that they came across as craven opportunists pandering to religious extremists.
So CBS news anchor Katie Couric decided she would try to help out her friend Rush today by trying to do a "hard hitting" Press the Meat-style interview with Michael J. Fox -- and she came across as a cold-hearted bitch pandering to religious extremists.
Digby is really pissed off at the smear attempts. He gives us the story that America will support:

The guy is so clearly trying to do something good here. It just kills me that these heartless bastards are attacking him and saying that it's tasteless or manipulative for him to be an activist for a disease that's killing him.
Actors are vain people. It cannot be easy for him to expose himself in public knowing that when the public sees him in this condition they are uncomfortable and pitying. He is rich enough to live out his days in in comfortable privacy, getting the best of care and giving money for the cause. But he's put together a very serious and productive foundation that has funded 70 million dollars in Parkinson's research and he works constantly on the issue.. . . Stem cell research has the support of the vast majority of this country of all political persuasions but it's being held hostage by the same minority group of religious extremists who staged that sideshow over Terry Schiavo. There you had a woman with no brain and no hope who the extremists were willing to go to the ends of the earth to "save." Here we have a 45 year old man who is fully funtional intellectually but whose body is beginning to fail him because of a terrible disease and they are rudely dismissing him as a fake and saying that his life is no more important than a smear in a petrie dish.

Fox was authoritative, passionate, articulate and sensible. I hope he does lots and lots of interviews over the whole next week -- reminding voters every day who vetoed stem cell research and why, and how the Congress can pass a veto-proof bill if enough Democrats are elected.
So thanks to Rush Limbaugh's ugly smear attempt, Michael Fox's one little ad in one race will haunt the Republicans just like Terri Shiavo did.
Go, Michael, go!

Deja vu all over again

So the federal and provincial governments are meeting in Mashteuiatsh, Quebec to discuss Aboriginal socio-economic issues.

Federal Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Jim Prentice listed four themes that should be discussed: education and housing problems, territorial claims, employment and economic development, and aboriginal self-government.

Gee, sounds kinda familiar, doesn't it? I can't quite put my finger on it, but wasn't there some agreement made about about a year ago, sort of along the same lines?
Of course, that one wasn't really any good at all because it didn't solve every single problem in one fell swoop. THIS time, it's going to be different. THIS time, all our problems will be solved and . . .

Heckofajob, Bushie

George Bush has achieved what everyone once took to be impossible -- he has made the Syrian dictatorship look better than democracy:

Advocates of democracy are equated now with supporters of America, even 'traitors,' . . . "Now, talking about democracy and freedom has become very difficult and sensitive. The people are not believing these thoughts anymore. When the U.S. came to Iraq, it came in the name of democracy and freedom. But all we see are bodies, bodies, bodies." . . . "The Americans came to Iraq to make it an example to the other countries to ask for change. But what happened was the opposite. Now everyone is saying we do not want to be like Iraq."

Well, at least the Iraq war has accomplished SOMETHING.