The Bush Administration has jumped the shark.

Pass it on.

Let's read from the Texas Republican Party Platform, children.

The REALLY good stuff is in the .pdf file of the full platform:


Homosexuality – The Party believes that the practice of sodomy tears at the fabric of society, contributes to the breakdown of the family unit, and leads to the spread of dangerous, communicable diseases. Homosexual behavior is contrary to the fundamental, unchanging truths that have been ordained by God, recognized by our country’s founders, and shared by the majority of Texans. Homosexuality must not be presented as an acceptable “alternative” lifestyle in our public education and policy, nor should “family” be redefined to include homosexual “couples.” We are opposed to any granting of special legal entitlements, recognition, or privileges including, but not limited to, marriage between persons of the same sex, custody of children by homosexuals, homosexual partner insurance or retirement benefits. We oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values.



Traditional Values in Education – The Party opposes faculty in public institutions abusing their positions to manipulate students to reject traditional American religious, moral, political and economic values. We support a character education curriculum and a program based upon biblical principles upon which our nation and state law system were founded.

I wish I had seen Phil give Ann this sound spanking.


I'm a bit confused, it seems that Ann has outed herself as a Liberal.

COULTER: I find this very interesting, that I write a book saying liberals won’t argue about things, instead what they do is call conservatives names.

[....]

COULTER: I call a lot of people a lot of things.

DONAHUE: So you’re a name caller yourself. You acknowledge that.

COULTER: I don’t have any problem with invective. The title of my book is “Slander,” not “Invective.” When I call somebody a name, I assure you, it’s true.


I almost feel bad for her. Creepy stuff going on in that melon of hers..

Go away for a night in NYC, and this is what I come back to, sent in by Counterspin:.

A member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission said in Detroit on Friday he could foresee a scenario in which the public would demand internment camps for ArabAmericans if Arab terrorists strike again in this country.

If there's a future terrorist attack in America "and they come from the same ethnic group that attacked the World Trade Center, you can forget about civil rights," commission member Peter Kirsanow said.

The reason, he said, is that "the public would be less concerned about any perceived erosion of civil liberties than they are about protecting their own lives."

Kirsanow, who was appointed to the commission last year by President George W. Bush, said after the session that he personally doesn't support such camps and the government would never envision them. He said he was merely saying public opinion would so strongly favor the idea that it would be difficult to prevent. There would be a "groundswell of opinion" for the detainment, he said.

Bold mine, permalinks may be broken..

I'm not sure who Eric Alterman is blaming for the 'death of privacy.' The two cases he cites are self-inflicted, as he notes, but as for the media feeling they should be immune to any of the kind of intrusion into the personal lives of celebrities and politicians they themselves undertake - poop on that. While it is wrong to hold every journalist accountable for the sins of their colleagues, as a profession the media long ago gave up their right to privacy.

Hey, Mickey Kaus interprets an ironic post as a threat and evidence of the violent masses on the Left. I wonder how long it took him to track down a year-old post on the (now defunct) Bartcop Forum.

In any case, the person who posted that message was actually visited by the Secret Service, who were also unable to see that the phrase 'simple matter of a double assassination' was an ironic joke. Admittedly, one should not make these kinds of jokes just as one shouldn't make bomb jokes to airport security personnel, but it obviously is in no way a threat.

That's almost as funny as Andy Sullivan tracing the 5th Column back to a Dutch (or was it Danish?) website.

( Do you think Kaus should be held responsible for everything readers of his Blog say and do? - editor. Sure, why not? -A. Oh, and shouldn't you post some fun CURRENT quotes from today's Free Republic -editor. Hey, Great Idea! That's why I have an editor! -A.)



"Will not someone rid me of the meddlesome atheist?"

"Can't we push HIM somewhere?

Yes, off a cliff along with all the other socialist/commies."

re: Nedow. Within the past few days.


I also found people at Lucianne.com wishing for Clinton's death.

I wonder what I could find on The Fray ?

To put it another way - is that the BEST you could come up with Mickey? wow.

UPDATE: That poster was indeed visited by the Secret Service, after an over-eager candidate for TIPS sent it to the FBI.

Hey, look who is being publised in Front Page Magazine.... (via an approving link by InstaPundit.)


I think Camille works around the corner from me now, maybe I'll go say hello...

Hillary's Right.


WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Clinton got into a closed-door shouting match in the Capitol yesterday with the top Democratic backer of campaign finance reform, sources told the Daily News.

Clinton (D-N.Y.) faced off with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) during a luncheon discussion of a landmark fund-raising law set to take effect Nov. 6.

When Feingold dismissed warnings that senators could face legal challenges on unpredictable grounds under the new law, Clinton exploded.

"Russ, live in the real world," a tight-faced Clinton shouted at Feingold, sources said.

"They will be all over you like a June bug," a source quoted Clinton as later saying, in a reference to Republicans and their allies.

"I also live in the real world, senator, and I function quite well in it," Feingold retorted before 20 senators sitting in stunned silence, a source said.

Scoobie Davis notes that David Horowitz makes a strong case for his own execution. (permalinks broken, yada yada yada).

I cannot wait to see American Mullet!

Sometimes I wonder what Wittman is smoking

Take the last step, Marshall. Acknowledge fully that the "Republicans are the party of small government" canard is a myth and has always been a myth.

Why are free traders opposed to allowing prescription drug imports from other countries?

Thus spake Cokathustra.

Bye bye Cokie..

Dow at 5 year low?

We tried to warn you...

Planned Parenthood required to release pregnancy test records.

There isn't much to say about this that isn't obvious. At least, I can't think of much. (via War Liberal. Permalinks broken, yada yada yada).

Don't have a link, but I think I caught on NPR that the House Bill for the new Fatherland Security Agency, or whatever, would ban TIPS-type programs.

UPDATE: here's the story.

Great Signorile column, as always.

Looks like Salon is embracing the Blog World.

Hey! I'll sell out! Cheap! Well, not tooo cheap.

Eric Alterman rightly jumps on Kaus for comparing the NYTimes editorial page treatment of Bush with the WSJ's 8 years of insane rantings about the Tubesteak Messiah.


Sheesh. Even if you compare the Times to the Times on Bush and Clinton, Bush still has it much easier.

Get on this, Democrats, before it spreads.

WEST PALM BEACH -- Because they don't give receipts to voters, Palm Beach County's new touch-screen voting machines offer "an Enron style of auditing," a critic of electronic voting testified Tuesday. The remark by Bryn Maw College computer Professor Rebecca Mercuri came during a court hearing on a losing Boca Raton candidate's request to examine programming codes and software related to the county's new machines.

Former Mayor Emil Danciu, seeking a new election because he claims Boca Raton's March vote was tarnished by machine problems, also wants permission for a computer expert to examine one of the county's $3,100 Sequoia Voting Systems machines. Elections Supervisor Theresa LePore testified that the state Division of Elections -- not her office -- has the code and software information Danciu wants.

Examining the internal workings of one of the county's voting machines, LePore said, would damage the machine and void its warranty. Mercuri, a prominent critic of electronic voting, said that without some type of receipt, there's no way to verify touch screen machines internally record votes the way they appear on the screen. "These machines being self-auditing are, in their own way, sort of an Enron style of auditing. Their trust is in themselves," Mercuri said.

"I'm going to have a courtroom full of experts (to defend touch-screen voting) when we get down to this part of the case," Assistant County Attorney Leon St. John said. Even if LePore's office had the information Danciu is seeking, St. John said, much of it is protected as a "trade secret." As for the request to examine a voting machine, St. John said, "they can go to Sequoia and buy one for $3,500 or whatever."

Chris Nelson has a good post on why TIPS isn't just a "neighborhood watch" program or, as Victoria whatshernamewhoismarriedtothatthugDiGenova tried to spin at as, just reporting on people lighting fuses to their bombs.

It's so tempting to exploit the incarceration of Noelle Bush by pointing out the obvious dangers of conservative parenting....

But, I won't. Instead I'll make the other obvious point about the ###$#@!# support for draconian drug sentencing by these people...

Is it worse to lie about boobs or blowjobs? via Counterspin

Oliver Willis has this to say:


The most ridiculous argument from the right in light of these corporate scandals has been that the market is "correcting itself". Here's the deal, slappy: The market is a great and beautiful thing if we play by the damn rules. These people aren't playing by the rules.


It is necessary to view this point through that wonderful concept of "self-regulation" promoted by people who currently head all of our regulatory agencies. It isn't clear if they actually believe it or not, but they are pushing the idea that the rules themselves will be created by the incentives of the market.

SullyWatch finds what might be hitherto unrevealed consistency by our large gluted pal:


"Bush compares relatively well with Clinton on gay rights issues." — today.


"i think president clinton was a fraud on gay equality.” — Washington Post online chat, April 9


Fair enough.

Oh this is just great.

Now the phone company can sell information about who you call.

from my pal Stranger at Blah3.

Let's see. We have a special terrorism alert network for top CEOS. We have a proposal for internal passports. We have an full time official federal snitch program.


This is the kind of thing this stuff encourages. It doesn't fight terrorism. It just gives every Dale Gribble across the country what they always dreamed of.

Busy, busy, busy.

I'll stop sharing my intimate personal details a la Andy soon, I promise. But, since I brought it up before - the couch fit, the cats are slowly but surely settling in, the cable is installed...

A bunch of stuff on Scalia and his theocratic bent from Ted Barlow, and you can follow some more links from there.


This theocratic view isn't limited to Scalia folks - the view is well represented in the Executive and Legislative branches as well. The Republican Party in many states has been essentially taken over by the Christian Right. It isn't just about prayer in school and abortion, either.

So, I'm sitting here in my empty apartment getting really worried that the sofa that is to be delivered today ain't gonna fit through the narrow hallway, being a bit annoyed that it seems that 10 digit dialing is the norm here, and a thought occurs to me after scanning the headlines.

Isn't all this Homeland Security stuff sounding almost exactly like what the New World Order/Black Helicopter crowd was screaming about a few years back? Minus the U.N., of course.

Privateer deals a little sarcasm at the question of whether the neo-Nazi's assassination attempt against Chirac was "terrorism." He's mocking those who questioned whether the El-Al counter shooting was "terrorism."

Leaving aside that last question, since when is the attempted assasination of a president considered to be "terrorism"?

Have you registered yet, citizen?

If Bush says that corporate officers who benefitted from fraudulent accounting practices need to give back all their money, does this mean that Cheney has to give back all of his?

Note to Blogger users:


I keep getting the 'unable to load template file' message, but it seems if I post and publish 2-3 times things show up as they should.

This about sums it up:



The general theme on the Right is that anyway it is all the fault of the bad example set by you-know-who. That blow job, you must believe, entirely destroyed the moral fibre of a generation of American businessmen.

Well, some of you may have noticed that posting has been even lighter on substance (if not quantity) than usual. Been busy. Tomorrow is moving day for Atrios, Mrs. Atrios, and the two feline members of the household. My exile behind the Orange Curtain will soon be over.

Hey Brian, you didn't tell me that WARREN ZEVON was going to be there!!!

CHENEY KNEW

So says Halliburton CEO.

So says the Washington Post.