SoonerBlue

Oopsie, just when you think you're making progress on this racial thing -- Officer Justin Barrett has been suspended by the Boston Police Dept. for writing a racist email, calling Prof. Gates a "jungle monkey," then sending it to National Guard members and the Boston Globe.

Officer Justin Barrett, 36, a two-year veteran assigned to District B-3, was placed on administrative leave pending a termination hearing yesterday afternoon.

Police Commissioner Edward Davis immediately stripped the cop of his gun and badge, according to officials. Barrett, who could not immediately be reached, has no prior disciplinary history.

Egad, an English teacher! Yet...that's even scarier than his being a cop. Even a craven idiot cop can sometimes do some good...a craven idiot teacher, never.

A few days ago, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), appeared on wingnut Alex Jones' radio show:

Then we have Rep. Virginia Foxx saying that Obama's healthcare reform will cause seniors to be "Put To Death By Their Government."

The healthcare bill provision in question has Medicare paying (for the first time) for end-of-life counseling once every five years, or more often if the patient has a life threatening disease. These consultations are in no way mandatory. They are just "an explanation by the practitioner of the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice, and benefits for such services and supports that are available under this title."

Gosh, it tickled me how The Daily Show's Jon Stewart got rightie Bill Kristol - who has brayed long and loud against public health care* - to admit that government-run healthcare is better than private...that the government-run healthcare system for our troops is "first class health care."

Okay, let me get this straight - wingnuts are against government-run health care because it's so bad...but it's what the troops have because they deserve the best.

Yes, Kristol said the government runs a first-class healthcare system for the military because "they deserve it"...then when he added that ordinary Americans don’t "deserve" the same standard of health care that soldiers receive, he got booed big time.

It should be mentioned that Congress' healthcare is also government-run...and I get the impression that it is "first class health care."

This interview should be a part of every debate about government-run healthcare...it should be waved in the face of every wingnut who says the government can't run anything, much less healthcare.

BTW - don't miss the part where Kristol volunteers to get Sarah Palin to "do" Jon. Hilarious.

In case you missed it, here's the video...well worth the watch. The televised interview was cut, here is the unedited version:

Sweet, Kristol says some folks are more deserving of public health care than others...and "the rest of us can go out and buy insurance."

Sure they can...just go tell that to the millions of Americans who do not have healthcare because, well, they can't afford it.

If Bill Kristol was smart he would've pointed out the Walter Reed Army Hospital scandal. But he is not so smart...after all, he's the one who really pushed for Sarah Palin to be McCain's VP choice.

Truth is - the VA always has too many budget cuts to be the premium healthcare that our soldiers deserve.

* BILL MOYERS: Back then, one of their chief propagandists, William Kristol, urged his party to block any health care plan for fear Democrats would be seen as, quote "…the generous protector of middle-class interests." Now he’s telling the G.O.P. to "Go for the kill…throw the kitchen sink [at it]…drive a stake through its heart...."

I will miss Sarah Palin...one of the most fascinating politicians ever!

Yes, the Republican governor of Alaska gave up her office yesterday, half-way through her first term. Right before she handed power over to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell (R), she delivered another odd speech which had more to do with campaigning than a formal transfer of power. The quitting ceremony was all about her...very little about him.

She complained about her political rivals, the press, and Hollywood "starlets"...and she warned about encroachments from big government in D.C. She blasted the news media with: "In honor of the American soldier, you quit makin' things up."

Nobody understood what she meant. And she really shouldn't be so hard on Fox News...after all, they are on her side.

She told her supporters that she'll be able to fight even harder for them now that she's out of office...nobody understands that either, since she'll have no government power, no authority, and no influence over public policy.

At least she won't have to worry about any silly ol' ethics rules.

She told her fans that good Americans should "never apologize for our country"...no matter what we do as a nation, we need to teach our children that we are too great to apologize.

So using Sarah-logic, our country should never apologize for slavery, or rounding up all Japanese-Americans and putting them in internment camps during World War II...or the Indian massacres, etc.

See, this is why bloggers and reporters are so fascinated with Palin...her speeches are like listening to a teeny-bopper speak in a college political science class...certainly not like a leader of one of the two political parties of the most powerful nation on Earth.

What she's going to do next is still a mystery...I heard she's scheduled to give a speech at the Reagan library next month.

Maybe the reason nobody knows what she's going to do next is because the offers she expected have not exactly been pouring in. I haven't heard of any candidates - Republican or Democrat - who want Palin to campaign for them like she offered.

Well, maybe Rick Perry and the Texas Secessionists...a good name for a C&W band.

You can bet good money that Palin won't leave national politics on her own...the night before she quit as governor, her political action committee, SarahPac, had Internet advertisements asking for contributions.

Yet, Republican strategist Alex Castellanos said her prospects for national office look mighty slim...that she's another Mike Huckabee.

Palin is a light-weight...she was basically a McCain campaign lottery winner. And like a majority of lotto winners, it probably won't be long before she's flat-broke and a nobody again.

Anyone with a brain can see that Palin is primarily out for Herself. She LOVES being "important" and having power and being respected. But she'd never make a good leader because she's inflexible, and she doesn't have the patience, or the discipline. She can't make herself focus on the actual day-to-day drudgery of governing. There's no glamour in making policy...it's hard work having to pay attention to details, hammer out compromises, etc.

My money is still on her own rightie radio show, or Fox News TV show...after a ghost-written book or two. Lots more money and fame...

"Sarah Palin ....a volatile and scattered country-music queen without the music. Her Republican fans defend her lack of application and intellect, happy to settle for her emotional electricity."-- Maureen Dowd

Remember James von Brunn, the crazy neo-Nazi racist who shot and killed a security guard at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum? Too bad he's locked up in the loony ward of a Washington, D.C hospital...because he's a proud 'birther' and would probably just love to appear on Lou Dobbs' show on CNN with all the other 'birthers.' Who are all so happy that Dobbs has become their willing mainstream spokesman, their media big shot, who champions their cause ...because before, all they had were racist web sites to spread the word.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow nailed it when she said - "The home run for conspiracists of any stripe is when their ideas can leave the lunatic fringe and enter the mainstream."

CNN, you should be ashamed for allowing Dobbs to mainstream this kind of hate and contempt.

We're used to this kind of militant scary crap from Fox News...who has been screeching about Obama since Inauguration Day, urging viewers to take to the streets against the new president because he is "destroying the country and robbing Americans of their rights."

In case you've been in a coma - 'birthers' are an angry group of radical rightie conspiracy nuts who claim that President Obama hasn't released a valid birth certificate, that he was not born in America and therefore isn't legally president of the United States.

This birther crap has been going on since Obama was a candidate...and he, so wisely, has ignored this craziness after posting proof that he was born in the USA on his web site. Because nothing appeases birthers, all the proof you show them is a forgery, the entire state of Hawaii is in on it, also the local newspapers which had announcements of his birth...blah blah.

Janice Okubo, director of communications for the Hawaii Department of Health, said, "It's crazy, I don't think anything is ever going to satisfy them."

Here's a site about birthers...who they are and what they want.

Here's site about how Dobbs, "who won a Peabody Award in 1987, is effectively destroying his career with this stuff."

"Oh my God, Barack Obama's running the old Kenyan Prince birth announcement scam. Here's how it goes: you want to destroy America from the inside but you can't because you're a foreigner. So first, you gotta find yourself a good ol' American to reproduce for you. Then, you have that child on foreign soil, while simultaneously placing the birth announcement of that child in one of our "fringe" state's local newspapers, your Hawaiis, your Alaskas.... And then, hold on, you wait. Until this baby is a middle-aged man. Now the trap is set. You just sit back and let that child go out and win the election for President of the United States. Now here's where the scam gets tricky; they can't just win the popular vote. He or she must have a strategy to win the electoral vote; that's what trips up most drifters. But, if you pull it off, you and your puppet child can sit back and destroy the fabric of the country you both hate so much. It's almost too easy." --Jon Stewart

"This is historic, this is huge in the world of politics. I don't know if you remember a couple of years ago we had that presidential election. And John McCain was running. And he needed a date for the ticket. So he got a hold of the governor of Alaska. And they ran. They didn't win but they ran. And now the governor of Alaska decided that she's quitting. So on Sunday, she's leaving office. And she will officially hand over her sash and her crown to her successor." --David Letterman

"And you know, there's some kind of ethics investigation going on up in Alaska, also involving Governor Palin. I don't know what the ethics violations are, but for our purposes here, let's just say that she robbed a gas station." --David Letterman

"She's stepping down as governor. Leaving the governor's mansion. Next stop, LensCrafters commercial." --David Letterman

"But Sunday will be a big day for Sarah Palin. That's the day she plans to go on her porch and wave goodbye to Russia. Then she'll run back in the House and jiggle the handle." --David Letterman

"Here's news from Pakistan. They believe now, intelligence believes, that a US missile attack about six months ago killed one of Osama bin Laden's sons. And the CIA believes that it was the hot-tempered Sonny." --David Letterman

"But Osama's favorite son, of course, was Osama W. bin Laden. He was - no, he wasn't too bright.'" --David Letterman

"We're learning more and more about Obama's healthcare plan, and if it passes, the healthcare plan, if that passes, President Obama will have the governor of South Carolina neutered. Did you realize that?" --David Letterman

"But the governor of South Carolina, Governor Sanford has lately been seen not wearing his wedding ring. And I was thinking, geez, I hope he didn't lose it while he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail. Then he'll never find it." --David Letterman

"President Obama tried to get a fire going under the lawmakers before the August recess, which is when they take a one-month break in order to visit their girlfriends in South America." --Jimmy Kimmel

"North Korea today launched another attack, but this one of a personal nature against our secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. You've got to love North Korea. They're a great villain. They say crazy things, their leader looks like Ethel Merman, all their missiles are named Dong; they're the best." --Jimmy Kimmel

"But you know who really is opposed to the Obama healthcare plan? The Republicans. Apparently it does not cover breast implants for their mistresses so they think, 'We don't want it. We don't need it.''" --David Letterman

"Interesting reaction to the solar eclipse. Rush Limbaugh says that the solar eclipse proves the unreliability of solar power." --David Letterman

"Here's some sad news from Iran, ladies and gentlemen. Do you know Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, do you know his vice president has resigned? This guy's main job was ceremonial, his main job was attending funerals. And you know, with Ahmadinejad in charge, that's a full-time gig." --David Letterman

"The vice president 'resigned' and that of course is Iranian for shot and thrown out of a car." --David Letterman

"Economists say the recession getting so bad, it's driving down the prices of many goods. In fact, folks, it has gotten so bad, the 99-cent store just changed its name to 'You know what? Just take it.'" --Conan O'Brien

"You remember before the election, in October and September, and the big convention, all people could talk about was Sarah Palin and John McCain? And now, this is Sarah Palin's last week in office as governor of Alaska. Isn't that crazy? Going back to her old job as IHOP hostess." --David Letterman

[gathered from NYTimes Laughlines]

Let's give it a rest folks...this Harvard professor being arrested in his home by a Cambridge policeman business. It's knocked all the other news in the dirt...and the blogosphere is on fire with it.

Everyone has an opinion - the blackity-black-black-black professor should've been more polite; and the whitey-white-white-white policeman should've walked out once he saw the professor's ID, etc.

Everyone is focused solely on race, and not how class might've colored the incident as well.

What if the situation heated up not because of the professor's rant about race, but because of class?

What if the rant that really pushed the policeman's button was - "Don't you know who I am! You don't know who you're messing with!"?

So...who knows what did the trick - the race card or the I-am-famous-wealthy-and-well-respected-and-you-are-not card?

BTW - The professor obviously forgot what all black boys are taught at an early age - that, no matter what, even when you're right, you DO NOT ever talk back to the police. It's a matter of survival. Statistics tell the tale.

Anyway, President Obama tried to defuse his part in the controversy by phoning the police officer:

"I want to make clear that in my choice of words I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sergeant Crowley specifically -- and I could have calibrated those words differently," Obama said. "And I told this to Sergeant Crowley."

...The president said he continues to think the arrest was an "overreaction" by the officer, but he said Gates "probably overreacted as well."

"My sense is you've got two good people in a circumstance in which neither of them were able to resolve the incident in the way that it should have been resolved," Obama said, adding that he hoped the controversy would become a "teachable moment" for improving racial understanding.

...Obama said he and Crowley had talked about "having a beer" at the White House with Gates. Later in the day, he called Gates and invited him to join them. [..]"

You know, when I stop to think about it, knowing what a wily politician Obama is, he might have relished the chance to get a break from health-care-hell (since it wasn't going his way), and took the oppourtunity to just jump into the middle of the professor and the policeman situation....knowing what would ensue.

Verrry interesting...

I knew immediately who Professor Henry Gates was when I heard he'd been arrested. I've enjoyed his PBS documentary series -African American Lives - which, ironically, explores roots, race and identity.

What a shame that a few days ago this prominent Harvard University professor -- a 58 y/o African-American -- was arrested in his home, apparently for having the nerve to insist that he lived there.

Having arrived home from a trip, he and his driver couldn't get the jammed front door opened. A woman on the street called 911 and said a robbery was in progress. "Two black guys...with backpacks..."

Prof. Gates had gone around the back and entered his home that way. He was in the house calling his realty company to report the door when the police arrived. He showed the officer two forms of ID to prove who he is and that he lived in the residence.

When that didn't end it, he was pissed and humiliated, demanding to know the policeman's name and badge number. Next thing you know, he was arrested for extreme uppitiness, or maybe it was contempt of a white policeman.

I jest...later, after the professor was handcuffed and hauled to jail, mug shots taken and all, the charges of disorderly conduct were promptly dismissed.

And, of course, America's first African-American president was questioned by our ever vigilant White House Press Corps about the arrest. The professor happens to be a good friend of his, and President Obama said the police acted "stupidly"...which is true, but I don't know if Obama should've said that.

Yes, the policeman was doing his job...up until he got Professor Gates to show his ID. Once he saw the picture and address on the ID, once he realized that the man who gave him the ID was the resident of the house, the officer should have apologized, turned around and left.

But he didn’t. I guess he didn't like Prof. Gates' attitude, didn't like that Gates had exercised his legal right to also question...so maybe he decided to stick around and act like he didn’t trust the black man who just gave him the ID.

Gah...this is 2009!

BTW - If you want to really see racial profiling in action, visit Oklahoma. I have a Hispanic/American friend who was standing in his open garage in cut-offs and a T-shirt one afternoon, getting ready to clean out some junk while his wife had the car out shopping. Suddenly a police car pulled up and wanted to see his ID. He didn't have it on him, it was in the bedroom. When he said he'd go get it, the officer said something about going downtown. My friend told him that he had two sleeping toddlers inside. Only then did the cop let him get his ID.

I was furious when he told me, but he was calm and said he was used to it.　

Okay, I have to comment on the silly "Birther Movement"...a group of Republicans who believe that President Obama isn't a US citizen. They have become obsessed with the idea that Obama's mother and father faked his birth certificate 47 years ago...somehow knowing that he would one day run for president.

To show you how loony they are - watch this video of a nutcase birther who got hysterical at a town hall with Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE)...holding up her birth certificate and then forcing everyone to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. She sounded like she was just a step away from snapping altogether.

Then we have Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) co-sponsoring a bill - H.R.1503 - which would require future presidential candidates to provide proof of US citizenship. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) became the first co-sponsor last month, and now four more co-sponsors have been collected -- Reps. John R. Carter, John Culberson and Randy Neugebauer, all Republicans from Texas, and Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.).

I saw Campbell on Hardball, trying to dodge the issue by claiming that this is merely a technical bill to ensure that future Presidents meet the requirements of office blah blah...but Chris Matthews didn't let him get away with it. He called it a "crazy proposal" and tried to pin Campbell down on whether or not he believed Obama was an American citizen. It took him about 10 minutes, but finally Campbell said he believed Obama was a US citizen.

"MATTHEWS: Congressman, nice try. But what you're doing, it's a nice try, and I'm laughing with you only to this extent, because I know it's a nice try. What you're doing is appeasing the nutcases. As you've just pointed out, this won't prove or disprove whether Barack Obama's a citizen. By the way, let me show you his birth certificate. That's the way to deal with this. Mail this birth certificate to the whacko wing of your party, so they see it and say, "I agree with this, it's over." [...] you're verifying the paranoia out there. You're saying to the people, "That's right, it's a reasonable question whether he's a citizen or not."

Nothing will appease the birthers...when this nuttiness first started, Candidate Obama posted a copy of his birth certificate on his web site, showing the official state seal and everything. Birthers said it was fake. They said the same thing about his birth announcement in the local paper, the Honolulu Advertiser, which was available only on microfilm. Then they demanded an eye-witness to his birth....and it goes on and on. They even tried to dig up relatives in Kenya who'll swear he was born there...hoping, no doubt, that if you give poor people living in grass huts enough money they'll say anything.

To be fair, I guess crazies come out of the woodwork after every election, when they just can't accept that the other side won. A friend pointed out that Democrats got hysterical after the conservative Supreme Court ruled that GWBush won over Al Gore. Yes, I griped a bit, but then I shut up about it and didn't get crazy.

Same thing happened in the '90's, when fringe righties ran with "scandals" regarding Bill Clinton, which accused him of everything from the murder of Vince Foster to drug-running, etc. They had witnesses and "proof" of everything of course, and the media gave them a platform which helped spread the lies.

Same thing is happening now with hate radio's Rush Limbaugh yammering every day about the birth certificate...hoping that if you rant about something long and loud enough, people will think it's true.

I see that CNN's Lou Dobbs has jumped on the birther bandwagon...ratings must be tanking because people are tired of hearing his rants about immigration.

Of course, all of this hysterical birther craziness is hurting no one but the Republicans, making them a laughing stock in the eyes of independents, moderates and centrists. Not really the best way to bring back your grandfather's Republican party.

Why can't people just come out and say, "I don't like this president, I hate his policies and I can't wait to vote him out of office"? It must be their hate that carries them to extremes.

Why don't you see more Republicans standing up to say, "This is a crazy thing...there’s nothing to it. The president's an American citizen. I just disagree with his policies"?

They can’t say that...they won’t say that because they’re afraid they’ll lose this nutty wing of their party.

Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) keeps popping up on all the 'most corrupt on the Hill' lists.

I don't care how many wounded vets he visits in Army hospitals, he's one of the single biggest crooks and potential liabilities the Democrats have.

Funny how Murtha's appropriations for defense contracts seem to end up financially benefiting his relatives.

Murtha has many ties to the defense contractors and lobbyists that the FBI is currently investigating. They also want to know about campaign contributions being tied to earmarks doled out by Murtha and another member of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee, Rep. Pete Visclosky.

Murtha hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing yet...but I'll bet the Feds are getting too close for comfort. Especially since a former Air Force employee has pled guilty to taking kickbacks from a contract awarded by Murtha's committee.

From rollcall.com: "A former Air Force employee pleaded guilty Monday to skimming money from an earmark that was provided to a Pennsylvania defense contractor by Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.)."

I certainly won't cry if the Feds get Murtha...hang him from the highest tree. The guy has been a crook for decades, a crooked corporate Democrat through and through.

Only bad thing is - the GOP will gorge on the propaganda victory, and in the end Murtha probably won't be replaced by a more decent Democrat. Ah well....

I just hope that his bribe-taking Republicans and Democrats go with him.

Marcus Cicero said it 2039 years ago: "Politicians are not born; they are excreted."

Both parties have their fair share of crooks. So why do we keep electing them? Because we don't want those OTHER crooks in office...because OUR crooks are somehow better than their crooks? More likely because our crooks keep bringing home the pork and we vote to protect our own interests.

" John McCain's in the news. CNN reports that Senator John McCain has more than a million followers on Twitter. And apparently, every single one of McCain's tweets says, 'The nurse is stealing from me.'" --Conan O'Brien

"Sonia Sotomayor's questioning finally came to an end. Sotomayor said that she had received a 'gracious and fair' hearing. Her exact quote was, 'Thanks a lot, you old honkies. I'm outta here. You can kiss my a**.'" --Conan O'Brien

"Happy birthday to former Senator Larry Craig from Idaho. Sixty-four years old. And if you are wondering where the celebration is, well, it's in the stall with the yellow balloons." --David Letterman

"According to a new poll, 42% of Americans say they would vote for Sarah Palin for president in 2012. They also said they'd support her decision to step down in 2013." --Conan O'Brien

"Gov. Sanford is still trying to recover from his sex scandal. This is the latest. This weekend, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford wrote an editorial apologizing for his behavior. I'm not sure he's sincere, though, because it starts out, 'Dear Penthouse.'" --Conan O'Brien

"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the United States will build two nuclear plants in India. And here's the weird part about those power plants. They're going to outsource all the jobs to Americans." --Jimmy Fallon

"The governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, is Stepping down from office. Will no longer be the governor of Alaska on Sunday. So right about now, Sarah Palin should be taking her grizzly bear head off the wall and packing it in bubble wrap." --David Letterman

"She's leaving office because she wants to spend more time riding in a helicopter shooting wildlife." --David Letterman

"Looks like Paula Abdul may not be going back to 'American Idol.' And that means President Obama has to nominate another new judge." --David Letterman

"It was that fateful day in July that we planted the Stars and Stripes in the lunar surface, officially claiming the moon as America's space Puerto Rico. It was all ours. It was the culmination of a dream. ... It took us ten years, astronauts' lives, billions of dollars, and all we did is hit a f***ing golf ball? ... I can't help but think, if only there'd been Moon Indians. By now, we'd probably have hourly shuttles to the moon casinos that we had to give them as an apology for the terrible Earthpox epidemic of 1973." --Jon Stewart

"Several weeks ago, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford disappeared without explanation for five days. Now of course, as it turns out, he didn't really disappear. It turns out he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail. Which is a trail that starts in Maine and ends in an Argentine woman's vagina." --Jon Stewart

"Since then, the governor has apologized many times, most recently in an open letter to the people of South Carolina in which he promised to 'trust god in his larger work of changing me.' I thought Reform Judaism was lax! This Christianity thing sounds amazing! See, you're not banging a hot Argentinean woman. You're 'undergoing a religious metamorphosis.' And, you get to do that and eat bacon. I'm in!" --Jon Stewart

"Walter Knonkite influence on the news is still felt today, in that news anchors still wear ties. Other parts of his legacy have become obsolete. For instance, dispassionate reporting is fine for covering the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention, but not for an issue as complex as Octomom. Sadly, Cronkite's passing is not getting the kind of cable news attention I believe it deserves. I watched the coverage this weekend and I didn't see one helicopter shot of his home. I don't even think his family has booked the Staples Center yet." --Stephen Colbert

"The tag Republicans kept throwing to hang aroundSonia Sotomayor's neck was 'reverse racist.' They said, you know, it's reverse racists like her that give regular racists like them a bad name." --Bill Maher

"It looks like healthcare reform really is gaining momentum and is going to happen. Now of course Republicans say the plan is too confusing, too convoluted, but you know, these are the same people who say they can make sense out of a Sarah Palin speech." --Bill Maher

"I know where I'm going to go on my next break. I'm going to the C Street House in Washington, D.C. You know what this is? It's kind of a frat house for Christian congressman, where they live and pray together and counsel each other on how to adhere to the nine commandments." --Bill Maher

"I say the nine commandments because Gov. Sanford hung out there, John Ensign, the Senator from Nevada who was banging his chief of staff's wife, he lives there. And now a third alumnus, a former Republican congressman named Chip Pickering, has also been exposed for cheating on his wife, apparently actually in the house. It kind of makes you miss those innocent days when Republicans just tried to blow a stranger in an airport bathroom." --Bill Maher

[gathered from NYTimes Laughlines]

Back before Sen. Ensign’s, and Gov. Sanford’s sexual pecker-dilloes drew attention to it, The Family on C Street was best known as a churchy group of politicians who led the National Prayer Breakfast each February in Washington, D.C.

But now journalists are seriously investigating this secretive evangelical organization on Capitol Hill, and they're finding more scary stuff than Republicans with zipper problems.

The Family likes to call themselves the"Christian mafia."

The Family was founded back in the late 1930's, and has not only has wormed its way into US halls of political power, but also into the politics of other countries around the world. There's evidence that they've used their access to the powerful to represent the interests of dictators and death squads.

Another scary thing about these politicians is that they see themselves as "God's Chosen." Which helps explain what Mark Sanford meant in his latest apology - when he used a King David story to justify staying in power. See, he thinks he's governor, not because South Carolina elected him, but because he was chosen by God. To me, that's a lot scarier than his libido.

Here's a very interesting article by Jeff Sharlet in Salon:

"...They say they're working for Jesus, but their Christ is a power-hungry, inside-the-Beltway savior not many churchgoers would recognize....the Family acts today like the most powerful lobby in America that isn't registered as a lobby -- and is thus immune from the scrutiny attending the other powerful organizations like Big Pharma and Big Insurance that exert pressure on public policy.

....it began 74 years ago as an anti-New Deal coalition of businessmen convinced that organized labor was under the sway of Satan. The Great Depression, they believed, was a punishment from God for what they viewed as FDR's socialism. ...

...Attempting to explain what it means to be chosen for leadership like King David was .... he asked a young man who'd put himself, body and soul, under the Family's authority, "Let's say I hear you raped three little girls. What would I think of you?" The man guessed that Coe would probably think that he was a monster. "No," answered Coe, "I wouldn't." Why? Because, as a member of the Family, he's among what Family leaders refer to as the "new chosen." If you're chosen, the normal rules don't apply.

...A review of Ensign's and Sen. Coburn's travel records, undertaken with researcher Chris Rodda of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, reveals an even more disturbing overlap of the pious and the political. On at least three occasions in recent years, Sen. Ensign traveled to Asia and the Middle East on what he described as official policy trips, paid for entirely by the International Foundation, one of the network of little-known nonprofits that make up the Family. Sen. Coburn, meanwhile, traveled to Beirut in 2005 on the Family's dime, with the explicit mission of setting up Lebanese political prayer groups, ...

...When they arrive in other countries, on trips paid for by the Family, at the behest of the Family, they are still traveling under official government auspices, on official business, with the pomp and circumstance -- and access -- of their taxpayer-funded, elected positions.

...Such interests have led the Family into some strange alliances over the years. Seduced by the Indonesian dictator Suharto's militant anti-communism, they described the murder of hundreds of thousands that brought him to power as a "spiritual revolution," and sent delegations of congressmen and oil executives to pray to Jesus with the Muslim leader. In Africa, they anointed the Somali killer Siad Barre as God's man and sent Sen. Grassley and a defense contractor as emissaries. Barre described himself as a "Koranic Marxist," but he agreed to pray to Grassley's American Christ in return for American military aid, which he then used to wreak a biblical terror on his nation. It has not yet recovered. More recently, the Family has paid for congressional Christian junkets to bastions of democracy such as Serbia, Sudan, Belarus, Albania, Macedonia and Musharraf's Pakistan.

...Counseling Rep. Tiahrt, Doug Coe offered Pol Pot and Osama bin Laden as men whose commitment to their causes is to be emulated. Preaching on the meaning of Christ's words, he says, "You know Jesus said 'You got to put Him before mother-father-brother sister? Hitler, Lenin, Mao, that's what they taught the kids. Mao even had the kids killing their own mother and father. But it wasn't murder. It was for building the new nation. The new kingdom."[..]"

Jeff Sharlet wrote "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism At The Heart of American Power"...recently on the bestseller list.

They just can't shut this guy up. Scandal-plagued Gov. Mark Sanford is asking forgiveness and apologizing again in an 800 word op-ed in The State, South Carolina's largest newspaper (don't miss the comments section). This time he brings God into it - "It means less time fighting the tide, and a greater awareness of the fact that God controls it."

What a perfect out - "God controls it."

All he's doing is making more excuses for his offensive behavior by claiming that God will forgive him, so why shouldn't the people of South Carolina? As if his being a "Christian" makes him more worthy of being taken seriously than some poor pigeon on the street who got his pecker caught in another woman's pie.

How 'bout 59-year-old golfer Tom Watson surging to the top of the leaderboard in the British Open!? And he had hip replacement surgery last October! Remarkable.

I love to watch the British Open...golf being played in Scotland where it was born...on a wild and rugged course...with bunkers so deep you can't see out of 'em. Yes, the manicured greens with pretty flowers in the US are gorgeous, but I like to watch golf go back to its roots.

If anybody wants me, I'll be piled up in bed eating popcorn, drinking lemonade and watching Tom Watson win...I hope. And if he doesn't, well, what a ride...the grin on his face so far is worth the price of a ticket.

UPDATE:

Aw shoot...he had the win in his hand at the 18th hole...read about it here.

I heard some historian say on TV that Supreme Court confirmation hearings were not conducted at all before we had television...not conducted, period. Senators simply studied a judge's record, then met in a closed room to discuss the record among themselves, and that was that.

Before Judge Sotomayor's hearings started, both sides seemed to think that the confirmation was almost certain.

Yet Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee threw every brick they could think of at Judge Sotomayor...but she survived still standing, with barely a scratch. She was calm and steady and ran rings around all of them.

It was priceless to see Sen. Sessions, of all people, basically imply that she's a racist. And Sen. Graham's insulting remarks about her "temperament" were code for the sexist opinion that women are unreliable because they get overemotional and throw hissy fits.

Like Maureen Dowd says - only women and toddlers have "meltdowns." Oh, and Gov. Mark Sanford.

BTW - I guess Judge Sotomayor proved, after being asked fifty times about one sentence in a speech she gave decades ago, that her temperament is just fine.

The 'wise Latina' remark was the only thing they could find against her...and we all know that only white men are not biased and do not bring their own personal life experience to their decisions.

So we learned more about the Republicans than we did about the nominee...because they tore apart her speeches instead of her judicial rulings. They were too busy posturing for the bigots back home.

But that was a good thing really...this country needs to see up-close-and-personal the backward bigotry and absolute lack of statesmanship of these men.

We needed to see the REAL reason McConnell and other hard-right blowhards blew so hard against Judge Sotomayor - they can't stand the simple reality that America is a multicultural society. The world has passed them by.

Watching our intelligent, competent, wise mulatto President appoint an intelligent, competent, wise Latina to the Supreme Court was…well, it was just beyond the pale. Pun intended.

The only facts that should've mattered in this confirmation were Sotomayor's 17-year record on the bench. She has a rich, remarkable record of experience as a trial lawyer, prosecutor, trial judge, and appellate judge...one that shows impartiality toward all groups and respect for the rule of law.

I guess the fact that her record is far more complete, and she has more experience going into the position than any of those before her, somehow doesn’t count.

The Republicans took her statements out of context to make her look like what her record clearly shows she is not.

Thank goodness that they are singing to an ever-shrinking choir...

Sotomayor’s record has been examined with a fine-toothed comb and found to be impartial. It is nowhere near activist, nor is there hint of racism - positive or reverse.

All that crap about affirmative action really got to me. What about "affirmative action" for rich kids? George W. Bush was a ‘C’ student in an expensive boarding school, yet he got into Yale...where he was also a ‘C’ student, yet he got into Harvard. But nobody bats an eyelash about any of that...because the parents of wealthy kids paid cash and/or donated money to the school.

Sotomayor graduated 2nd in her class and clearly earned her grades...graduating Summa Cum Laude, etc. speaks volumes about her academic chops.

Seeing McConnell, Graham, Sessions, Limbaugh, Buchanan, et al, trying to make Sotomayor look biased, the more apparent their own prejudices became to all of us.

Brava Judge Sotomayor for your patience with these little minds.

"It offered a vivid snapshot of what Washington looked like when
clueless ancien-régime conservatives were feebly clinging to their
last levers of power, blissfully oblivious to the new America that was
crashing down on their heads and reducing their antics to a sideshow
as ridiculous as it was obsolescent.

....But when Tom Coburn of Oklahoma merrily joked to Sotomayor that
"You’ll have lots of ’splainin’ to do," it clearly didn’t occur to him
that such mindless condescension helps explain why the fastest-growing
demographic group in the nation is bolting his party."

Why does their Republican Rep.Todd Tiahrt stand on the house floor and say that if health care had been available for free to the mothers of President Obama and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, that they might have aborted them, and the world would have missed these great minds?

Thank goodness for YouTube and the Internet...years ago when a politician said something utterly stupid, it might have blown over pretty quickly. But these days Tiahrt's idiotic remarks are racing around cyberspace, showing up on blogs and videos across the country.

Read about it and see the video here.

I don't know about Thomas' mother, but Obama's mother was married to his father when he was born. She wasn't single. Why would she want to abort her child?

Maybe some backward bigot from Kansas would think she wouldn't want a mixed race child? Or that women carrying black babies always consider abortion...black babies being the most abortable, you see...

To follow Tiahrt's stupid logic -- women would just wake up one morning and say, 'I wasn't going to get an abortion...but, hey, if it's free....'

Because you know what low morals poor people have ...

Notice he didn't mention any prominent white men or their mothers...I guess white folks would be immune to abortion freebies.

BTW - I wouldn't use "Clarence Thomas" and "great mind" in the same sentence together.

Rest in peace Walter Cronkite, you defined integrity in television journalism...and you helped make me the news junkie that I am today.

The image of Walter Cronkite taking off his glasses and glancing up to see a clock, his voice cracking softly as he announced that JFK was dead always brings tears to my eyes. Some things you never forget.

He hadn't anchored the news in nearly thirty years, but Walter Cronkite set the standard for reporting serious network news. He was there to cover the most important events of the 20th Century - from WWII to JFK, Apollo to Vietnam.

In 1968 he came back from Vietnam and said that the war was not winnable. That was the beginning of the end of that war. President Johnson said - "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."

I'll never forget his broadcasts of the space flights. During the first moon landing in 1969 he was on the air for almost 30 hours waiting for Apollo 11 to complete its mission. I still remember the look on his face...he was as excited as a kid, just like we were.

Come to think of it, his measured calm voice led me through all the important major news events of my youth...three assassinations, a moon landing, riots, the Vietnam war, Chicago ‘68 and Watergate.

Another broadcast that brought tears was his last broadcast...the night he left the evening news. I was sitting at the bar in a restaurant, waiting to meet a friend. The rowdy after-work crowd was suddenly hushed as Walter said for the last time - "and that’s the way it is."

Maybe a fitting tribute would be for journalists to actually act like the journalist he was...even for a day.

Remember back before we invaded Iraq, how the war hawk righties were telling us it would be a cakewalk...a slam dunk? They said, see, we'll just roll into Baghdad, depose Saddam, install Chalabi and then head home.

Wrong, wrong, wrong...

With our troops withdrawing to the outskirts of Iraq's big cities, it might be interesting to compare how many actual casualties we suffered with the predictions righties made before the war.

"If we go into Iraq, how many casualties do you expect to see (on the side of the US and our allies)

John Hawkins: "Probably 300 or less"
Charles Johnson:"Very few"
Henry Hanks: "Less than 200"
Laurence Simon: "A Few hundred"
Rachael Lucas: "Less than three thousand"
Scott Ott: "Dozens"
Glenn Reynolds: "Fewer than 100"
Tim Blair: "Below 50"
Ken Layne: "a few hundred"
Steven Den Beste: "50-150"

Then we have more pre-war pearls of wisdom fromTim Blair:

"John Hawkins: If and when do you see the United States hitting Iraq? How do you think it'll work out?

Tim Blair: It all depends on Iraq’s fearsome Elite Republican Guard. Why, those feisty desert warriors could hold out for minutes. Dozens of US troops will be required. Perhaps they’ll even need their weapons."

Any fool knew that Iraq had as much to do with the 9/11 attacks as, say, Mexico or Sweden.

Sad to think that those casualty predictions might have been more accurate if the Bush gang had put the right people in charge...like got rid of the inept secretary of defense....oh, and a different VP.

My point is that the military did its job...no one can fault our brave fighting men and women. It's just that the Bush gang didn't know what they were doing and allowed the resistance to develop before they had an exit strategy.

We never should have invaded - period - and certainly not with the keystone kops in charge.

Can you stand more rightie beliefs and predictions? Like...

Saddam had nukes...

This is just a mental recession...

Obama is a foreign-born Muslim...

The desperate R's on the Judiciary Committee are jumping up and down to draw attention to President Obama...he's the guy they're after.

Many of those senators crowed long and loud about their own law backgrounds, their experiences as jurists. Yet they pick apart her speeches instead of her judicial decisions.

Why don't they bring attention to Sotomayor's showing partiality in her decisions? Is there any such evidence? Can they show that she has misapplied the law?

BTW - I don't think anyone ever asked Justice Roberts or Justice Alito whether they thought being a white male would in any way interfere with their judicial impartiality?

Again - notice how Republicans had nothing to say when Alito testified that his father’s mistaken conviction affected his views on issues involving the rights of the accused.

What we have here is all these white male Republicans who just don't think anyone but a white male is a "real American"...so they treat women and minorities with suspicion and hostility.

Also, the only reason I can think of for all those white male New Haven firemen showing up at Sotomayor's hearing, in full dress uniform no less, is to intimidate her. They really looked like a gang of hired thugs sitting there behind her.

I'd like to know who shelled out the money for their trip from New Haven to Washington...and are they taking sick leave, vacation or personal time?

What "official capacity" brought them there...and who authorized it? If they're not there officially, why are they in uniform?

If fireman Frank Ricci speaks, I want to see if he reads his comments...because one of his main arguments about his preparation for the captain’s test was that he couldn't read.

And now we have - "She didn't deserve them Vietnam medals either..."*

Talk about stupid acts of desperation - a conservative judicial activist group, the Committee for Justice, has produced a swift-boat type ad accusing Judge Sotomayor of supporting violent terrorists...trying to tie her to Weatherman Bill Ayers.

No, not kidding...the ad shows a picture of Judge Sotomayor alongside the text: "SUPPORTED VIOLENT TERRORISTS.""

Like that worked so well last time when they tried it on Obama.

Next thing you know they'll have her sitting in the front pew of Rev. Wright’s Church clappin' and singin' up a storm.

I love the smell of rightie fear and desperation early in the morning...

*Header nicked from MSNBC's Keith Olbermann

One thing for sure - Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (R-Ala.) should be happy that Saturday Night Live is still in re-runs...because they'd wet themselves with glee writing skits about his questioning of Judge Sonia Sotomayor during her confirmation hearings.

"White Men Can't Judge" is what the Daily Show's Jon Stewart is calling it...

Anyway, all hell broke loose because of Judge Sotomayor's 'wise Latina' remark - which spoke to how heritage might influence judging - Sessions said this "goes against the American ideal."

Sessions said to Sotomayor:

How on earth can Sessions say with a straight face that heritage and experience should have no bearing on a judge's work? Because he voted to confirm Justice Samuel Alito, who made almost exactly the same point about heritage that Sotomayor did.

During his confirmation hearings Alito talked about how his background as the son of Italian immigrants had an impact on his rulings.

But Sessions doesn't like it when Judge Sotomayor mentions that her Puerto Rican heritage might have the same impact on her work.

Here’s what Samuel Alito acknowledged during his 2006 confirmation hearing:

Sessions' kind of hypocrisy is so common in Washington that no one seems to pay attention to it anymore. He actually implied that being a white man is the norm. His questioning of Sotomayor, along with his vote for Alito, suggests that it’s okay to have biases and prejudices...as long as you’re a white man.

Because any fool knows that white people do not have cultural biases or formative experiences...no, their views aren't prejudicial at all....no sir...

Both Alito and Sotamayor are correct - our viewpoints and perspectives are influenced by our backgrounds and life experiences.

BTW - if experience and background have nothing to do with judicial decisions, why do we have 5-4 votes all the time? Scalia, Roberts, Thomas and Alito don't seem to see the world the same way as the other justices. So lifetime experiences have to make a difference...otherwise we'd only need a Supreme Court with only one justice.

Justice is supposed to be blind...but we all know that it hasn't been, especially for women and minorities.

And isn't it rich that this is the same Jeff Sessions whose '86 nomination to a federal court was rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee due to racially insensitive statements he'd made?

And isn't it ironic that now the same rejected senator is sitting on that same Judiciary Committee...passing judgment on who will or won't become a Supreme Court justice? Only in America...

Ah well, Democrats have had their share of embarrassing confirmation hearing moments too. I remember Joe Biden's long-winded questioning of John Roberts. Biden, bless his heart, would yammer on trying to show how knowledgeable and clever he was...and Roberts couldn't help grinning because by the time Biden took a breath to actually hear an answer.. his time was up.

Sen. Lindsey Graham told Sotomayor - "Unless you have a complete meltdown, you're going to get confirmed."

(A meltdown like Gov. Mark Sanford recently had over his Latina woman?)

Then Limbaugh took him to task, saying he was too soft, blah blah. So now the Republicans will feel that they have to mount a stronger offense of some kind...but, once again, it puts them in the position of sounding like white supremacists.

Republicans probably can't damage her...they can only damage themselves.

Liz Cheney is out defending Papa Dick again, which is a good sign…it means that he is feeling the heat. I swear, I never remember Nixon sending out Tricia to explain things for him...or Carter sending out Amy to speak for him, or the Clintons sending out Chelsea...

Yesterday Liz talked to the conservative - what else? - Washington Times about the secret counter-terrorism program that her daddy ordered the CIA not to divulge to Congress.

Really, Liz, your dad could have killed and captured as many al Qaeda leaders as he liked, except he was supposed to follow the law while doing so.

Besides, our government was already going after al Qaeda leaders...we didn't need a secret program or special authorization from the president to do so. Anyway, there'd be no reason to keep any of that secret, and CIA Director Panetta wouldn't have had to cancel the program last month.

I'm waiting for another shoe to drop...

The WSJ article said the program on "capturing and killing al Qaeda leaders" was never fully implemented...and wasn't "fully operational" eight years later.

So, by Liz Cheney's reasoning, does this mean that her father and Bush weren't really all that committed to going after terrorists?

Notice that she does not say that the programs were legal. Her argument is basically that her father should not be investigated because the Democrats are unpatriotic big meanies.

Any fool can see that the real controversy is about possible illegal secrecy, illegal orders...or whether Bush and Cheney fulfilled their obligations under the National Security Act of 1947.

It's one thing to spin the truth on her daddy's behalf, but don't tell flat-out lies. Please show me any Democrat who "disagrees with the notion that we ought to be capturing and killing al Qaeda leaders" because they think the CIA ought not to break the law!

What a partisan hack Liz is, trying to turn it back on the Democrats to take attention away from daddy's wrong doing...saying that Democrats do not want to 'fight over' going after al-Qaeda! What Democrats DO want to fight over is accountability and oversight of government activities...and enforcing the highest moral and legal standards.

This latest spin just proves to the American people one more time why they can't trust the Republicans to tell the truth or to protect our Constitution or our nation's laws.

One thing I really want to find out about - rumors that Cheney left 'spies' in Obama's administration...yes, rumors that he's illegally spying on President Obama...

Yeah, yeah, I know, Democrats get embroiled in sex scandals too - BUT at least they aren't all holier-than-thou and don't try to legislate morality or try to tell everyone who they can go to bed with, and who they can marry.

Let's see, let me recap Senator John Ensign’s bizarre sex scandal - the one where he was having an affair with his best friend's wife, both staffers in his office, and the husband went to a group of men who make up a secret C Street fundamentalist Christian group (both he and Ensign belong), and asked them to "confront" Ensign. They did, and made Ensign write a letter to his girlfriend breaking things off.

Then two of the church men actually drove Ensign to a FedEx office to make sure he mailed the letter. Next thing you know Ensign called the girlfriend to warn her that the letter is on its way and that he didn't mean any of it...that the church guys made him write it. Twenty-four hours later, Ensign was with the girlfriend again in Las Vegas.

Talk about weird - for one thing the secret church is spooky...just sit back and watch this video. This C Street church leader preaches about commitment to Christ being the same as Nazi devotion to Hitler...a "kind of totalitarian idea of Christianity."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dox4jdW4UyQ

Okay, now do you remember why our founding fathers built a wall between church and state?

And guess who else is a member? Someone Ensign has a lot in common with - Gov. Mark Sanford, who hiked the Appalachian trail to South America to see his mistress.

Get ready, there's more - turns out that Ensign's wealthy parents gave almost $100,000 to his former mistress and her family...yes, her family. The parents said it was given out of concern for their welfare.

From the NYT: "A statement by his lawyer, Paul Coggins, on behalf of the Mr. Ensign, a Republican from Nevada, said that in April 2008 the senator’s parents each gave $12,000 apiece to Cindy Hampton, her husband, Doug, and two of their children in the form of a single check for $96,000.

"The payments were made as gifts, accepted as gifts and complied with tax rules governing gifts," the statement read. Under federal tax regulations, $12,000 is the most that a person can receive as a gift from any one person without having to declare or pay taxes on it.

[...] "After the senator told his parents about the affair," the statement issued by Mr. Coggins said, "his parents decided to make the gifts out of concern for the well-being of longtime family friends during a difficult time. The gifts are consistent with a pattern of generosity by the Ensign family to the Hamptons and others."

Somehow my silly Okla. Senator Tom Coburn gets into it:

"Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) on Thursday said he would not testify in court or before the Ethics Committee about any advice he gave Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) on how to handle his affair with a former staffer, citing constitutional protections for communications during religious counseling, as well as the patient confidentiality privilege."

"I was counseling him as a physician and as an ordained deacon. ... That is privileged communication that I will never reveal to anybody. Not to the Ethics Committee, not to a court of law, not to anybody," Coburn said....[..]"

Counseling him as a physician!? LOL! Coburn is an OB/GYN.

Say...maybe there is still more to this story....

Looks like it's gonna take a looong time to clean all the skeletons out of the Bush Presidency Closet. Deja vu all over again. From the NYT:

Dick Cheney lied!?...whoa, didn't see that coming. We’ll have to see whether Cheney’s lawyer will let him make a statement...or if he'll send his daughter Liz out to play defense yet again.

Someone please tell me - by what authority in the Constitution does the VICE PRESIDENT issue orders?

I know one thing - if Al Gore had done the same thing, the Republican temper tantrums and head spinning would be a sight to behold.

So, now we have Leon Pannetta giving us a little embarrassed grin as he tells us -"Remember when we told you we didn't have any secret program? Well...turns out maybe we did have this one."

And now we're wondering just how many other secret programs they're running that Congress and the President have no clue about...

Some people think the program might've been about "assassinating intelligence targets abroad." As if that would be a new CIA trick...

The CIA keeps telling us that the program was no big deal and if only they could tell us about it we would understand. But, hey, if there's nothing to hide they wouldn't be hiding it, now would they? People keep secrets when they know the crap they're doing is shameful or illegal.

Some lefties are happy that we may be inching closer to actually filing charges against the Bush law-breakers and liars. Obama said he wants to keep looking forward - which means it would interfere with policy making - but this new info might prompt Attorney General Holder to just hunker down and do his job, uphold the laws of this country.

Because it's very serious business when the vice president/executive branch orders the most powerful intelligence agency of the United States to withhold information from Congress.

I still think Obama has too much on his plate right now to be distracted by all that...yet once this ball gets rollin'...

And one good thing - turns out Nancy Pelosi didn't lie to us when she said that the CIA had not revealed its waterboarding policy during a 2002 briefing.

Many of the Republicans, especially Minority leader John Boehner, just as good as called her a liar and demanded an investigation into the allegations. Rep. Steve King accused Pelosi of "actively undermining our national security" and called to suspend her security clearance. Newt Gingrich even demanded Pelosi's resignation.

All those Republicans who trashed Pelosi owe her an apology...but I'm not holding my breath.

Pleeease, Ms. Noonan...we Democrats do NOT want Palin to disappear from the political scene.

Remember last year when Peggy Noonan, conservative columnist and speechwriter for Republican presidents, was chatting with another reporter about Sarah Palin, only they didn't know their mics were on...and Noonan said that Palin being picked for VP was "political bullshit"?

BTW - if you change all the references from "she" to "he" and "her" to "him" in Noonan's column...and replace any mention of her name with "Bush," Noonan's critique of Palin is dead nuts on. The exact same things could be said about him.

Of course, and I hate to say it, but if we Dems don't deliver - and we sure haven't yet - people like Sarah Palin might not have to change one bit in order to get themselves elected.

That's British soldiers who have died fighting in Afghanistan...the worst casualty rate since Britain started operations there in 2001. Thank you Great Britain for standing by us and being our ally. I am sorry for your loss.

Violence and bloodshed have stepped up in Afghanistan in recent weeks. Thirteen US soldiers died there from the time Michael Jackson died until they finally had his memorial. We saw wall to wall media coverage of the pop star, and about a minute's coverage of our war dead.

And nothing has changed -- people still seem to be paying more attention to political scandals and celebrity deaths than these brave young soldiers.

I mourn for all these lost lives, some as young as 18, and thank them and their families for their sacrifice.

I am so tired of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, which have now lasted longer than WWII. How can we continue to send troops into an open-ended war with no clear permanent solution in sight?

As in Iraq, there are so many different tribes in Afghanistan who have been fighting each other for centuries...and they have yet to form a stable government there. How can our troops be expected to do this in a couple of years?

How I wish we could all bring our troops home before we sacrifice any more lives.

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade was talking about that Alzheimer's study that I blogged about yesterday...the one that said married people fare better than divorced people when it comes to Alzheimer's. You'd think that this would be right up Kilmeade's "pro-family" alley...but noooo, he took issue with where the study was done, said it discredited the results.

Salon's Alex Koppelman, who posted the video, explains:

Kilmeade goes on to tell his national TV audience -- "In America, we marry everybody. Some will marry Italians, the Irish...."

His co-hosts shot him a look but Kilmeade wasn't through making a crazy fool of himself. He added that he believes Americans' tendency to marry "other ethnics" and "other species" necessarily makes us less "pure."

Yes -- he said, 'we keep marrying other species.'

Other species?! Well, maybe in Kilmeade's family, but not in mine. Is he perhaps trying to say that certain ethnic groups are actually other species? Is he admitting to his own bestiality?

Hey, I know you love your German Shepherd...but, still...

Which human beings does he consider another species? I would love to hear him expand on his notion that Americans are marrying outside their species. I bet that would be fun.

Kilmeade's argument shows that the old Nazi ideas of ethnic purity are alive and thriving in the extremist right-wing of the Republican party...which has built itself on this kind bigotry. Fox News thrives on it...they cultivate the kind of people who are attracted to the reich-wing world.

And then they complain that they aren't racists.

Forget all that 'Master Race' crap...just look at dog breeds to see how completely wrong this Kilmeade moron is. Everyone knows that purebred dogs have more health problems than mutts. Genetic DIVERSITY - not genetic purity - is the key to genetic strength. Pure breeding leads to all sorts of undesirable recessive traits, which cause many awful diseases.

Well, you have to give Brian Kilmeade credit for one thing -- for being honest and coming out of the Nazi closet...unlike the rest of the Fox News crew.

Egad, I'm not pure! My English ancestors kept marrying other 'species' -- Scots, Irish, Amer-Indians and whatever "Black Dutch" is.

Yet, Brian Kilmeade isn't the only scary one -- there are millions of Americans who agree with him.

BTW - If you watch the clip at Koppelman's link, notice at the very end how somebody in the background starts to whistle "If I Only Had a Brain" from The Wizard of Oz.

Heheh...tickled me.

"New research suggests that two cups of strong coffee a day can reverse the effects of Alzheimer's."

So tell that to the next joker who scolds you for drinking so much coffee.

I saw my mother lose her memories and her personality to Alzheimer’s - she did not recognize her children, or even her own face in the mirror. Not a day goes by that I don't wonder if I will suffer the same fate, so I'm happy that I drink a pot of coffee every morning.

Researchers gave older mice the equivalent of five cups of coffee a day and they showed improvement in their cognitive function...and most of the younger mice, when properly hopped up on caffeine, managed to avoid the disease altogether.

Read about it here, also the other things you can do to prevent, or hopefully delay, this terrible disease. I'm already doing most of them because I try to keep current on ALZ news. I do daily physical exercise like dancing and walking and puzzles to exercise my brain. I love green leafy veggies, eat blueberries on my yogurt almost every morning and dip raw broccoli in ranch dressing for snacks almost every day.

I may have to study and learn a new language though....but I ain't ever gettin' married again!

The news media continue to relentlessly cover Michael Jackson, and now Sarah Palin, while barely mentioning attacks in Afghanistan that took the lives of seven US soldiers. Their deaths earned probably less than a minute coverage on each of the major cable newscasts, which have devoted almost wall-to-wall coverage on Jackson for a week and a half.

"KABUL - Bombs and bullets killed seven American troops yesterday, the deadliest day for US forces in Afghanistan in nearly a year - a sign the war being fought in the Taliban heartland of the south and east could now be expanding north....."

We seem to be endlessly fascinated by Sarah Palin, a beautiful charismatic woman...too bad she's such a whack job. Republicans could sure use someone with her star power to lead them out of the wingnut ditch they're stuck in.

It tickles me when righties say we Democrats are scared of her...they miss the point completely. We jumped into the middle of every Palin controversy because we wanted so desperately to bring attention to her being the Republican "brand." If she could've been anywhere on the 2012 ticket, we would've been so happy.

But now she has resigned her governorship halfway through her term, in a hurriedly pulled together press conference on the front lawn of her house, with only her family and a few neighbors present...on what the media call Dump Friday.

Her speech also seemed hastily put together, and surreal even for her...all nervous and breathless as she gave a bizarre lame-duck reason. Seems that politics in Alaska changed after she was nominated for VP...meanies came out of the woodwork to say bad things about her and file all sorts of ethics complaints against her.

People are wondering if she's preparing her Base for bad news. Rumors have a new scandal brewing, a federal indictment...other rumors have her spending more time in the lower 48 trying to raise money for a presidential run in 2012.

All I know is this better not involve a 'soul mate' Sarah...right when I've been blogging about how we need more women in politics because they don't have zipper problems.

Her reason for quitting has to be a really big deal to make her react this way. She's no shrinking violet and easily brushed off small scandals. She didn't turn McCain down because of the potential embarrassment of her daughter being unmarried and pregnant.

As a feminist, I don't like to say this, but the Vanity Fair guy was right - with her record, people would never have given Sarah Palin a second glance if she had looked like Susan Boyle.

One thing for sure - the Saturday Night Live cast is heartbroken.

No, not a new coke-head rock band...just SC Gov. Mark Sanford digging a deeper scandal hole for himself. Seems that a lot of what he said about his Argentine mistress wasn't true. Seems he had trysts right here in the US. This is important to certain of his constituents...see, it isn't against the law for him to commit adultery in another country...

Also seems there were "a handful" of other women that he "crossed lines" with.... but never the "ultimate line," the "sex line."

Now, I had a little sympathy for him when he first came back from Argentina and spoke about being in love with Maria - his email showed a man truly caught in love's web, or at least lust - but what with all these other women, it looks like he was looking for a soul mate.

I'll tell ya, I don't understand why he gets so much action...he looks like a cross between Mr. Rogers and Prince Charles.

Maybe it gives new meaning to the term "stimulus package"...

And get this - he says he plans to resist calls for his resignation...seems it's God's Plan for him to finish his term.

But the worst thing Sanford said during yesterday's interview in his Statehouse office - that Maria is his soul mate and he still loves her, but he's "trying to fall back in love" with his wife.

Oh my lord...I would be coming after him with a carving knife. There’s a limit to what any woman should have to forgive...he made it sound like he will really have to make an effort to love her again.

This is a message that Jenny Sanford should be receiving loud and clear. She seems like a nice calm woman, I feel sympathy for her and the children.

Too bad the Gov just won’t shut up. Because the adultery part isn't really anybody's business...only that he was derelict in his duties to the state of South Carolina and spent taxpayer money for his Argentine tango.

Dump him, Jenny. Sometimes the best example to the children is to make the hard decision.

I suspect the South Carolina voters just might dump him too...especially after this latest rambling blubberfest.

You've crossed the ultimate line, Senator. Do the right thing - free yourself and fly south to be with your soul mate. No doubt we'd one day read about you straying from her too...after all, once the sex gets old you'll start to resent her for ruining your chances to be president...