In court documents ordered released today, it turns out that good ol' Billy Janklow, fresh from his stay in the South Dakota Penitentiary, gave his troublesome son-in-law multiple pardons for drunken driving and marijuana possession.

Those good, reliable law-and-order Republicans. Will their hypocrisy stop at nothing?

Keep reading...

Hi all, here's my post from the Political State Report (a project Kos began way back when but which has been more or less handed over to the capable Temple Stark). Thought it might be an interesting cross-post...

As usual, the comments board over there will probably get pretty fiery. I'm staying out of it for the most part this time around, but I'd encourage one and all to go check out the insanity.

=========================

After a stagnant and bitter legislative session, which was required by law to adjourn lat week, Minnesota is boiling with vindictives flying back and forth between the Republicans (led by Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R), the Republican House majority and the Republican Senate minority) and the DFL (Democratic) leadership of the Senate over the possibility of a special session.

here's an analogy that occurred to me today.... posted it on the Political State Report but thought i'd repost it here. it's kind of Minnesota-relevant as we're in the midst of a homestretch for the Legislature and the big debate is over bonding... Republicans say we shouldn't borrow because of defecits, blah blah blah, Democrats would rather not watch the state whither away and die.  Anyway, something to chew on.

Last week we discussed Bush using paid actors to portray firefighters in campaign propaganda. Today it turns out that was just the beginning.  The Feds are investigating government-produced "news stories" that were sent to local TV stations and aired as real news segments but that featured paid actors reading scripted words and pretending to be journalists advocating the Medicare bill.

Read on...

Following is my most recent post on the Daily Kos affiliate the Political State Report.

I wouldn't hold out much hope that those responsible for the burgling in the Senate will face any stiff consequences. Bill Clinton gets a blow job and almost is kicked out of office.

A U.S. Representative recklessly speeds down a low-visibility country road and without even tapping the breaks blows through a low-visibility stop sign and kills a man out for a ride on his motorcycle. He will serve 30 days in a county jail. Then walk away.

What kind of world...

I'll miss her.  Unfortunately, though my views are most in line with hers, Carol Mosley-Braun stepped out of the race just now.

from CNN

CARROLL, Iowa (CNN) -- Four days before the Iowa caucuses, Carol Moseley Braun dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday, and threw her support behind former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

"I am here today to thank those Iowans who were prepared to stand for me in Monday's caucuses and ask that you stand instead for Howard Dean," Braun said.

Braun was joined during her announcement by Dean and Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin.

Before the announcement, a Democratic source said Braun felt it was time to quit because her campaign had not caught fire.

"Carol felt like she had done what she needed to do," the Democratic source said. "She did herself a lot of good in this race.

"She ran a good race and now she felt like it was time to hand it over to someone who can win. Those are the feelings that were expressed to me this evening."

Hey all... We could spend all day doing things like this, but CNN.com's current Quick Poll is whether or not you think there should be an investigation into whether or not Paul O'Neill should be investigated for releasing secret materials.

Right now it's at 51% yes, 49% no.  This might be a chance to send a message to the media that most Americans DON'T want to see this story, that CNN should not just go along with the administrations media blitz against O'Neill but should focus on

a) the real release of dangerous top secret information: Valerie Plame's identity

and

b) the actual informed allegations O'Neill has made against Bush...

anyway, take a second, go to CNN.com right now and vote.  the poll's in the lower right corner.

Okay. I'm a Deaniac by and large. Sure, it just seems like a crapshoot to me, trying to decide which candidate is "electable." (For me, ousting Bush is priority number one.) From the beginning, I've thought Dean has good things to say and that he says them with a passion that might get the attention (and respect) of the American voters.

Frankly, the past couple months have just left me feeling like there's no way to predict what the majority of voters are looking for as an alternative to Dubya, and that we might as well just get somebody out there and give him all the money and support we can and hope it works.  

I digress.

Here's the reason for my post, this from the AP. Sorry for all the 'snipping,' just trying to keep it to a readable length.

AP: Dean Had Own Secret Energy Group    

By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean (news - web sites), who has criticized the Bush administration for refusing to release the deliberations of its energy policy task force, as governor of Vermont convened a similar panel that met in secret and angered state lawmakers.

Dean's group held one public hearing and after the fact volunteered the names of industry executives and liberal advocates it consulted in private, but Dean refused to open the task force's private deliberations.

In 1999, he offered the same argument the administration uses today for keeping deliberations of a policy task force secret.

"The governor needs to receive advice from time to time in closed session. As every person in government knows, sometimes you get more open discussion when it's not public," Dean was quoted as saying.

His own dispute over the secrecy of the task force that devised a policy for restructuring Vermont's nearly bankrupt electric utilities has escaped national attention, even as he has attacked a similar arrangement used by President Bush (news - web sites).

[/snip]

"Governor Dean confronted and averted an energy crisis that would have had disastrous consequences for the citizens of Vermont by bringing together a bipartisan and ideologically diverse working group that solved the problem," spokesman Jay Carson said Sunday.

"Dick Cheney put together a group of his corporate cronies and partisan political contributors, and they gave themselves billions and disguised it as a national energy policy."

[/snip]

The task force's work resulted in the Dean administration and state utility regulators advocating that Vermont have the first utility in the country to meet energy efficiency standards.

[/snip]

The parallels between the Cheney and Dean task forces are many.

Both declined to open their deliberations, even under pressure from legislators. Both received input from the energy industry in private meetings, and released the names of task force members publicly.

Dean's group volunteered the names of those it consulted with in its final report. While Cheney has refused to formally give a list to Congress to preserve the White House's right to private advice, known as executive privilege, his aides have divulged to reporters the names of many of those from whom the task force sought advice.

The Bush-Cheney campaign and Republican Party received millions in donations from energy interests in the election before its task force was created.

Dean's Vermont re-election campaign received only small contributions from energy executives, but a political action committee created as he prepared to run for president collected $19,000, or nearly a fifth of its first $110,000, from donors tied to Vermont's electric utilities.

[/snip]

Elizabeth Bankowski, a Democrat who co-chaired the task force with Gilbert, told the legislature that the secrecy requirement "was decided in advance by the governor's office and the governor's lawyer."

I care about electability. I don't think I'm the only one. But, like I said above, it feels like a crapshoot. Sure, there's always the "November Surprise," we just can't predict what the voters' mood will be like next October, anything could happen...

But, there is one thing the voters won't go for and it's mendacity and hypocrisy. Dean, although I personally think he's got his heart in the right place and is essentially an honest guy, has a few too many of these kinds of stories filtering out through the press. The right is quietly picking them up, and I worry about how they'll be used next year.

Right-wing columnists are using this kind of stuff quietly right now, only mentioning it in passing and it seems like generally in pieces aimed at their core audience. Getting their people rallied. Next year, when they take their attacks to the broader public, Dean had better be ready.

I think his campaign's response is pretty good here... He's definitely got some real pros working for him and for that I'm glad. But, the bottom line is that I think he needs to choose his attacks carefully. He knows what his record is better than anybody, and he needs to realize when attacking Bush that everything he did for the past 20 years is going to be examined for any sign of hypocrisy that can be publicized.

this from Harpers... good for a Christmas Eve laugh... I'm still trying to decipher it myself, but that doesn't mean it isn't enjoyable.

[PsyOps]

Straight Outta Tikrit

Posted on Thursday, December 18, 2003.

From a rap song set to the tune of Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise"
broadcast in April 2003 in Iraq by Radio Tikrit, a station believed to
be backed by the CIA. A Saddam Hussein impersonator performs most of the
song in English with occasional Arabic interludes. Originally from
Harper's Magazine, June, 2003.

If you don't like me, I kill you.

I am Saddam. I don't have a bomb.
I am not a soldier. I work at a farm.
Bush wanna kick me, I don't know why.
And if I call him, he does me goodbye.
Smoking weed and getting high.
I know the devil is by my side.
My days are finished and I will die.
All I need is chili fries.

Why is that one not dancing? Come on, dance.
I'll remove your eye and the eye of the one who gave birth to you.

I am so dirty, I am so bad.
Stop killing Iraqis. That make me sad.
I am big daddy, this is my game.
I don't have feelings. I don't have shame.
Forty-eight hours left, Bush said.
All my troops left me and fled.
Now I am sitting by myself.
My ass is shaking. I am going to hell.

Where is the music? May God curse you.
I am for adoption. Anybody wanna adopt me?
Shake it. Shake. Please. I love you.

Everybody in the house say you hate me.
We hate you.
Everybody in the house. What's up? What's up?
What's going around here?
Everybody in the house say "We hate you."
We hate you.

should do well to remind the American public that liberals have a far better sense of humor than republicans, contrary to popular belief, and that we aren't just going to sit by and let our country be stolen.

Franken Back in the Ring
[Reed Business Information - US]
Publishers Weekly via NewsEdge Corporation : After winning that much-publicized lawsuit brought by Fox News for poking fun at their "fair and balanced" motto, liberal gadfly Al Franken is about to loose another salvo at the right wing just in time for next year's presidential election. The author of Lies and the Lying Liars That Tell Them, which has been a major bestseller for Dutton, signed with the house's president, Carole Baron, for a book that will give a Franken's-eye view of the election and its likely consequences, to be published next fall. It was a seven-figure deal, signed with agent Jonathon Lazear, who remarked he hoped that perhaps Franken and Bill O'Reilly, his conservative opposite number, might be able to reprise their angry confrontation at last summer's BEA, which immediately preceded the Fox lawsuit. .end (paragraph)<<Publishers Weekly -- 12/15/03, p. 12>>

<< Copyright ©2003 Reed Business Information - US >>

link to original.

i'm sure franken is aware of the boost that he could give our democratic candidate by having his book making headlines by sitting on the bestseller lists next fall.  every little bit, right?

On the way in to work this morning, there was an Iraqi expat in San Diego declaring "God Bless George Bush" on NPR. Rather sickening, but I guess an understandable sentiment.  Then there's the quote below...

AD-DAWR, Iraq (Reuters) - "I'm Saddam Hussein," the man with the scruffy beard said in English when U.S. troops found him in a dirt hole. "I'm the president of Iraq and I'm willing to negotiate."

"President Bush sends his regards," they replied.

Let's just not forget who hunted Saddam.  Who captured Saddam.  And who sends our troops into a war zone without a plan for their safe exit. And cuts their pay.  And tells the enemy to 'bring it on.'  

Those infantry and special forces, they're the ones who have spent these months tracking him down, putting their lives in danger on countless and fruitless raids.  Not Bush.  Bush has been sitting in the White House.  Campaigning.  Vacationing at Crawford.  Lying.

So sure, this is a victory for our troops and for America in that we've eliminated some sort of enemy.  But it is a victory for Bush purely in the political sense.