FISA immunity vote tomorrow - call your Representative!

If you want details, you can read them here, but the lowdown is the Democrats are caving to give retroactive immunity for warrantless wiretaps to the Bush administration and the telecom companies.

As Mr. Greenwald notes, this is crap. OK - he doesn't say it like that, but I will. It's bullshit. I just called up my representative Kathy Castor, and she's against it, so she stays in my Good book. I also called the Obama campaign, so hopefully if enough people word will get to him and he'll speak out against it.

Hopefully.

We're taking our ball and going home, gay boy!

When I lived in Utah, some kids decided to make a "Gay and Lesbian Alliance Club" or something like that. The idea - through my dim memory - was for gay teenagers to have a place to share common experiences, common problems with being a gay teen in a very conservative state. My personal bet is they didn't plan on just having crazy sex orgies all the time.

Based on the way the school distract acted, though, you'd think that was exactly what was going on. The club was banned from the school. The kids took the school to court - and won. Courts basically said "You can't not let these kids have a club just because you don't like the subject matter. As long as they don't violate decency policies - aka, have orgies or go into graphic descriptions of sexual stuff - you really can't stop them from having a club, if you offer students a chance to have their own clubs."

State of Utah's decision? Ban *all* clubs. Chess club, drama club, every single one of them. Gone. Their reasoning was "Well, if we have to offer equal rights to the gay kids, then we'll deny clubs to *all* kids, and then we're being equal!"

Yeah, a pretty childish (pun intended) decision, but that's how it goes. I'm not sure what ever happened - I've since moved, but I'd like to think that someplace, somewhere, some kid can get his buddies together at school to play some fracking chess.

It's funny how this seems to be the default response now to things homosexual by conservatives. Three counties in California, now faced with the knowledge that they have to issue marriage licenses to consenting adults even if they're the same gender, have opted to not offer marriage licenses at all.

Yeah, that'll show you, gay people! We're going to honor marriage by not allowing *anybody* to get married - so people will just have to either live together and have kids and families without getting married, or we'll die as a species because everyone knows if you have sex without getting married your kids turn into mutants - or worse, Democrats!

(Sigh.)

Can anybody explain McCain to me?

I'm still trying to get over the catch-22 nature of McCain's energy and environmental policies - well, over all of his policies, for that matter.

McCain: Global warming bad! I will fight global warming!

Voters: Yay, McCain!

McCain: And we're going to do that by allowing for drilling of more oil, so you have cheaper gas!

Voters: Uh - won't that increase greenhouse gases? And won't it take like 5-10 years before drilling offshore services benefits? And what about the fact that oil companies will usually leave off-shore platforms inert until the price of gas is high enough to warrant pumping the oil from beneath the sea - which doesn't reduce the cost of oil, just gives the oil companies a chance to make great profits later?

McCain: My opponent doesn't want to lower the cost of your gas by reducing the gas tax - but I do! It'll be good for the economy!

Voters: Wait a second. Now you're just talking crazy. If you reduce the gas tax, you have to either cancel infrastructure upgrades, or take out loans to pay for the tax we're not paying. And with levees breaking in Iowa and destroying 16% of the farmland there, that means out cost of food is going to go up. How about we keep paying the gas tax, spend the money on infrastructure that badly needs it so we don't spend more money another several years from the next disaster? You're not making any sense!

McCain: Hey, I'm opposed to torture - but I don't want to enforce the military code of justice on the people doing the torturing! And I support the constitution, but not habeas corpus. I want to stay in Iraq for 100 years once the fighting dies down, but I have no idea when the fighting will ever die down, so we have to stay in Iraq until it does, which may take 100 years. By 2013 there our troops will come home but don't you dare set a timeline!

Voters: Wait a second - are you the reincarnation of Zenos come to give us more paradoxes?

McCain: Most of you don't know who Zenos is - or else you'd be an elitist! And I support education - as long as its private!

Voters: Oi.

President Bush, where are you?

While Katrina drown New Orleans, President Bush was playing guitar with Senator McCain in San Diego.

Now, Iowa is drowning. 16% of the farmland in that state has been lost to the flood. And - where is the President? This is his chance to show people that he's relevant, that he's able to actually act in a crisis and do some good. Where is he?

Eating dinner with the Queen in Britain. Can I ask a real question? I know - I've been harsh on this guy for, well, about 5 years now.

But what the hell is wrong with this man? Why isn't he flying in, gathering up national guard resources and emergency crews from around the nation to save a city? To help with housing? Isn't this why we have presidents - do act in times of national crisis?

(sigh)

Bluewashing: How to keep screwming the people

Right now, the Republican brand is in the toilet. Bush hasn't helped, neither has the war in Iraq, Katrina, the housing crisis, the gas crisis, the fact that he's out in Europe while there's massive flooding in the mid-states (heck of a job, Bushie!).

But how low can you go to switch parties from Republican to Democrat, but keep the same backers of big business just so you can get elected? "Bluewashing" is a new term springing up for Republicans who are running as Democrats, just in the hopes that people will ignore that little fact so it can be business as usual.

Keep an eye out - seems we'll have to keep on our toes even in the local primaries to make sure the person we're voting for is actually working for our needs.

Michelle Obama is a "baby momma"?

First, a definition:

the mother of a man's child when the parents are not married - Source: Urban Dictionary

Then, the story:

An alert reader wrote in just a little while ago to let us know about something he'd spotted on Fox News Wednesday afternoon. During a segment discussing conservative attacks against Michelle Obama, the wife of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama, the network described the former as "Obama's baby mama." - Source: Salon

Just to make sure I have this right: Fox news commentators are saying that Michelle Obama is not actually married to Barack Obama, and that they're children are born out of wedlock. Why on earth would you even think such a thing? Oh, that's right - they're black - isn't that what Fox believes "those people" do?

(sigh) Anyone want to start a betting pool until Fox just lays down the N word and is finally done with it?

I'm really liking Jim Webb for VP

Especially after this interview, and this line:

"John McCain's comment about Barack not having sat down recently with General Petreaus means nothing," Webb said. "If you know who to listen to, if you know how to make judgments, if you know how evaluate information, you can do that. I don't think Franklin Roosevelt was ever at the front in France during WWII in order to help end the war."

Yeah. I like.

And this is the change we've been waiting for

DRIVING THE DAY: On Day 2 as nominee, Senator Obama wants to show that he will change the nation’s politics. As the presumptive DemoObama already eager to show that he will change the nation’s politics, and Clinton plans departure from '08 race.cratic presidential nominee, he WILL ANNOUNCE TODAY that the Democratic National Committee will no longer accept contributions from federal lobbyists or PACs -- consistent with the policy of his campaign. His declaration makes it clear that he will try to make the influence of Washington insiders one of his key arguments against Senator McCain. Source: Politico.com Playbook

If you wanted to understand the change in Senator Obama's candidacy, this is it right here. Away with the special interests, the PACs (Political Action Committees that can represent everything from single mothers to oil rights) that can drive the Democratic party. No more money from telephone companies seeking immunity for breaking the law, or giving out grants to oil companies who just jack up the prices.

From now on, the DNC is going to be funded by the people. This is going to make it hard for the DNC at first. They're going to need help. They're going to need the same $25 donations by millions that brought Senator Obama the money he needed to run against the biggest Democratic establishment machine ever.

The question is - will people response?

I will. I get paid tomorrow, and $25 is going right to the DNC coffers. Anyone else who wants to join me, and make their political party answerable to *us* - not special interests or just those with the money, but *us*, I'd encourage you to do the same.

This is the change we've been waiting for - and it's gutsy, its risky, and it relies on people really wanting control of their political process again. The question is - do you want it too?

DNC web page

Turns out that giving a speech before a green screen is a bad idea

I shouldn't find this funny, but John McCain learns the dangers of talking before a green screen.

It's an appeasement trap!

Evidently Syria wants the US to be a member of the Isreal/Syria peace talks.

Don't do it, Bush administration! Obviously talking to people we don't like is considered appeasement, and we certainly wouldn't want to do that!