"Path To 9/11" Redux. Bigger, Better W/Hannity On Top.

I must stress the fact that there has not been ANYONE more committed to exposing the hypocrisy of ABC News or Disney Entertainment than John at AmericaBlog. He is a whiz at co-ordinating boycotts, and he once again has ABC/Disney in his sites.

The rumblings from the ABC/Disney vs Spocko had lessened to a dull roar, when this was revealed....

Media Bistro

Hannity's America To Air Unseen Footage From ABC's "The Path To 9/11"

"Fox News Channel is touting the fact that it has obtained controversial unseen footage from ABC's miniseries 'The Path to 9/11' and is planning to air the video during 'Hannity's America' on Sunday night," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"Fox News obtained the outtakes by taping a public talk that Cyrus Nowrasteh, writer and producer of 'The Path to 9/11,' gave to a World Affairs Council chapter last Friday at Cal State Channel Islands. Nowrasteh discussed making the docudrama and played several minutes edited out of the movie," the Los Angeles Times adds.

What scene you ask?



Think Progress

Richard Clarke Blasts Key Scene In ABC’s 9/11 Docudrama

The first night of Path to 9/11 has a dramatic scene where former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger refuses to give the order to the CIA to take out bin Laden — even though CIA agents, along with the Northern Alliance, have his house surrounded.
(snip)
In short, this scene — which makes the incendiary claim that the Clinton administration passed on a surefire chance to kill or catch bin Laden — never happened. It was completely made up by Nowrasteh (writer-ed).

So, Sean Hannity on his pathetic little show, is going to show clips of this Nowrasteh guys' lecture, that includes the debunked false scenes from the POS "Path To 9/11". Pretty sad, and in itself wrong.

BUT IT GETS WRONGER

In brief, the premise behind behind the dust up between ABC and a little know blogger named Spocko....

Media Matters

In 2006, a blogger named Spocko began spotlighting inflammatory rhetoric common to several talk radio hosts on KSFO, an ABC Radio-owned station in San Francisco. Spocko compiled a litany of examples on both his weblog, Spocko's Brain, and in numerous letters to corporations advertising on KSFO.
(snip)
...on December 21, ABC Inc., a subsidiary of the Disney-ABC Television Group, apparently issued a cease-and-desist letter targeting Spocko and his blog for copyright violation. Specifically, ABC alleged that by posting brief audio clips of various talk radio hosts on KSFO, the site was "in clear violation" of the station's copyright. The letter demanded that the owner of the site "remove the content immediately." Soon after, according to Spocko, his Internet service provider shut down his blog.

So, ABC/Disney must be UP IN ARMS over this UNAUTHORIZED usage of their film clips!!! Right?

LA Times (registration required)

"I can't imagine what the news is here," he said.

An early version of the miniseries that ABC distributed to television critics is readily available on YouTube.com and other websites.

Fox News does not have ABC's permission to broadcast the unaired footage, but an attorney for the network said officials there believed that the newsworthiness of the material put it under the fair-use exception to the copyright statute.

So, what would the final judgement be?

So Disney/ABC don't care about the truth, though we already knew that. And why pray tell have Disney/ABC and YouTube refused to take down the video of the show that is STILL on YouTube to this day? It's a clear copyright violation, and we know how overzealous YouTube is about its purported copyright violations. And Disney is NOTORIOUS for asserting its copyright rights, yet in this case, Disney doesn't care. And for some reason, YouTube isn't so zealous about enforcing its own policy about illegally broadcasting video when the target is a Democrat.

Isn't that interesting.

The more I pay attention to this stuff, the more it looks like a co-ordinated attack. Everyone is giving everyone else a reach around, so everyone is "happy".

One last tidbit

AmericaBlog

President Clinton contacting head of Disney over rekindled "Path to 9/11" controversy
by John in DC - 1/26/2007 03:05:00 PM

President Clinton's office has just informed me that they're "taking it all the way to the top at Disney to find out why they're not enforcing copyright" in this matter.

Ted Kennedy Goes Off About R's Against The Minimum Wage

TOOOOOO GOOD!!....

"Do you have such disdain for hard-working Americans that you want to pile all your amendments on this? Why don’t you just hold your amendments until other pieces of legislation? Why this volume of amendments on just the issue to try and raise the minimum wage? What is it about it that drives you Republicans crazy? What is it? Something. Something! What is the price that the workers have to pay to get an increase? What is it about working men and women that you find so offensive?"

Oh my

And apologies to AmericaBlog for skirting the edges of "Fair Use", but this is tooo good....

Markos reports the following, then read on because I have more and it's good:
In an interview, Pelosi also said she was puzzled by what she considered the president's minimalist explanation for his confidence in the new surge of 21,500 U.S. troops that he has presented as the crux of a new "way forward" for U.S. forces in Iraq.

"He's tried this two times — it's failed twice," the California Democrat said. "I asked him at the White House, 'Mr. President, why do you think this time it's going to work?' And he said, 'Because I told them it had to.' "

Asked if the president had elaborated, she added that he simply said, " 'I told them that they had to.' That was the end of it. That's the way it is."

Oh, it's better than that. When I was on the Hill on Tuesday, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) told us (on the record) the rest of the story. Apparently, Pelosi's final come-back to the president was the following:

PELOSI: He's tried this two times — it's failed twice. I asked him at the White House, 'Mr. President, why do you think this time it's going to work?'

BUSH: Because I told them it had to.

PELOSI: Why didn't you tell them that the other two times?

Gherkins of Info.....

(OH MY!!!!)

I'm still recovering from the BRUTAL thrashing the Pres gave us last night!!!

(wha? He wha? OH, That was JIM WEBB who thrashed? Nevermind.)

A couple of things really stood out to me today, starting with Churck Hagel...
Think Progress

Hagel Chides Colleagues On Iraq Vote: ‘If You Wanted A Safe Job, Go Sell Shoes’

This morning in his opening statements before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) said, “The American people are far ahead of us” on what to do next in Iraq. “They’re not conflicted with the nuances of life. They understand what’s going on.” According to a recent Gallup Poll, 56 percent of Americans want a withdrawal from Iraq within a year.

Hagel chided his fellow colleagues for being too concerned about the politics of their Iraq positioning. “If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes,” he said. Hagel concluded that all 100 Senators have a responsibility to take a position on escalation. “We owe it to those men and women that we continue to send in that grinder.”

Or how about a Hagel BOMBSHELL he dropped in GQ Magazine

In an interview in GQ Magazine, Hagel reveals that the Bush administration tried to get Congress to approve military action anywhere in the Middle East — not just in Iraq — in the fall of 2002. At the time, Hagel says, the Bush administration presented Congress with a resolution that would have authorized the use of force anywhere in the region:

HAGEL: [F]inally, begrudgingly, [the White House] sent over a resolution for Congress to approve. Well, it was astounding. It said they could go anywhere in the region.

GQ: It wasn’t specific to Iraq?

HAGEL: Oh no. It said the whole region! They could go into Greece or anywhere. Is central Asia in the region? I suppose! Sure as hell it was clear they meant the whole Middle East. It was anything. It was literally anything. No boundaries. No restrictions.

GQ: They expected Congress to let them start a war anywhere in the Middle East?

HAGEL: Yes. Yes. Wide open. We had to rewrite it. Joe Biden, Dick Lugar, and I stripped the language that the White House had set up and put our language in it.

THIS really pissed me off today....

Company's anti-war e-mail sparks outrage

Response led to threats against the Muslim-owned business

Updated: 12:38 p.m. ET Jan 24, 2007
MILWAUKEE - An American soldier in Iraq who e-mailed a U.S. company to ask for a shipment of floor mats got a brusque reply: "We would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq."

The response quickly circulated on the Internet and led to threats against the Muslim-owned business, including demands for a boycott.

Bargain Suppliers, an online retailer, shut down its Web site Monday and fired the unidentified employee who sent the e-mail, television station WTMJ reported.

You know for a DAMN fact that those Righty Boogers, erm Bloggers don't give a shit about anything but the fact that some MUSLIMS ARE AGAINST THE WAR!!! THE HORROR!!

And, as it usually goes with the mouth-breathers, there are death threats.
Way to win that community over to our side....

State of the Union Address..... The Prequel

Tucker Carlsons' Dad #1 In Libby Defense Fund*Ask MSNBC Why He's Commenting?!?!

I've stewed over this for quite a while. I had heard on and off the Tucker Carlsons' dad Richard Carlson was bff with Scooter Libby, and headed his legal defense fund. SO WHY IS TUCKER COMMENTING ON THE LIBBY CASE WITHOUT AT LEAST A NOTATION TO THAT EFFECT???

CBS News

Libby Gets A Little Help From His Friends
More Than $3M Donated To Legal Fund For Indicted Former Cheney Aide

I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby won't lack powerful friends or financial resources when he goes on trial on Tuesday. A private fund set up to pay the legal bills of the former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney has collected more than $3 million since Libby's indictment 14 months ago.

(snip)
One of those friends is Dick Carlson, a former ambassador and Republican stalwart who has headed the Voice of America and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. (Carlson’s son is Tucker Carlson, the conservative TV pundit.)

Like many of Libby’s well-heeled friends, Carlson wasted no time in coming to his aid. On the day the indictment was announced in October 2005, Carlson said: “I sent a check by courier to Scooter’s house in McLean with the assumption that he’d need it.”

That check was the impetus for what quickly morphed into The Scooter Libby Legal Defense Trust. A source close to the trust said more than $3 million has been collected to pay Libby's legal bills. The public face of the defense fund is a cadre of Republican heavyweights that include Mary Matalin, Steve Forbes and Jack Kemp.

Back in March, it looks like Arianna took Tucker to the woodshed and dirtied the knees of his jumper. Musta pissed him off....

A nasty little propagandist

I didn't mention my father's support for Scooter Libby because it was irrelevant. Completely and utterly. Libby was my father's personal lawyer long before he joined the Bush administration. They're friends, and that has nothing at all to do with me. I've met Scooter Libby precisely once.

Tucker goes on to characterize Ariannas' column as ....." attempted character assassination by a nasty little propagandist. "

Ariannas' WONDERFULLY SOURCED COHERANT COLUMN HERE....

The Full Disclosure Tucker Carlson Isn't Making

I don't see how this could be anything but revelant. What, MSNBC doesn't have enough commenters that Tucker couldn't just bow out on this one?
Not enough semi-dirty stories for Tucker to cover?

It's called "Conflict Of Interest". He's on right now, making excuses for Libby.

dabrams@msnbc.com

Tucker just called it an "Abuse of Power".

New House speaker shows she's boss

AP

By ERICA WERNER Associated Press Writer © 2007 The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Sworn in just over two weeks ago as the first female
speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi wasted no time showing who's boss.

The California Democrat rammed six major bills through the House at
breakneck speed, stomped out smoking privileges near the House floor, partially
sidelined a powerful Democratic committee chairman and decided she liked
traditionally Republican office space so much she claimed it for herself.

By Democrats' timekeeping, she did it all in far under the 100
legislative hours she had allotted."We did what we promised the American
people we would," Pelosi declared on Friday, pledging it was "just the
beginning."

Pelosi's initial agenda, completed Thursday, included measures with
wide popular support: increasing the minimum wage, broadening stem cell
research, allowing government bargaining on Medicare drug prices, cutting
student loan costs, putting in place terrorism-fighting recommendations from the
Sept. 11 commission and rolling back energy company tax breaks.
Each bill passed with bipartisan majorities and Pelosi triumphantly gaveled down the
votes, at one point banging the gavel so enthusiastically that it left a small
dent in the podium.
(snip)
....In the view of many Democrats, Pelosi's opening performance bodes well. She seemed to recover from postelection stumbles such as backing the losing candidate in the contest for House majority leader.

She also is getting a honeymoon from the public. Pelosi is held in higher regard than the president or her colleagues in the Congress. An AP-AOL News poll taken Jan. 16-18 put her approval rating at 51 percent — much higher than that of Congress (34 percent) or Bush (36 percent).
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., a close ally, called Pelosis performance "spectacular."
"What the Democrats in the caucus are telling me is that this is the best three weeks of their life," he crowed.

Compare and Contrast.

CNN Dumbasses On November 16th

Situation Room onscreen text: Is Pelosi "Damaged Goods?"
On the November 16 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer asked "how badly is [Rep.] Nancy Pelosi [D-CA] damaged politically?" while the question "Damaged Goods?" was displayed on screen. Blitzer was referring to an "intraparty battle" among House Democrats, in which Pelosi backed Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) to be House majority leader but Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) was ultimately elected.

National Sanctity of Human Life Day, January 21st

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

Our Nation was founded on the belief that every human being has rights, dignity, and value. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, we underscore our commitment to building a culture of life where all individuals are welcomed in life and protected in law.
(snip)

When we seek to advance science and improve our lives, we must always preserve human dignity and remember that human life is a gift from our Creator. We must not sanction the creation of life only to destroy it. America must pursue the tremendous possibilities of medicine and research and at the same time remain an ethical and compassionate society.

National Sanctity of Human Life Day is an opportunity to strengthen our resolve in creating a society where every life has meaning and our most vulnerable members are protected and defended including unborn children, the sick and dying, and persons with disabilities and birth defects. This is an ideal that appeals to the noblest and most generous instincts within us, and this is the America we will achieve by working together.

No Words Can Explain How Lost We Are

Manual to allow executions based on hearsay
Pentagon plan for detainee trials could spark fresh bipartisan debate

• Pentagon drafts detainee trial manual
Jan. 18: The Pentagon has completed a manual for upcoming detainee trials that would allow suspected terrorists to be imprisoned or executed using hearsay evidence.

Updated: 2:52 p.m. ET Jan 18, 2007
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has drafted a manual for upcoming detainee trials that would allow suspected terrorists to be convicted on hearsay evidence and coerced testimony and imprisoned or put to death.

According to a copy of the manual obtained by The Associated Press, a terror suspect's defense lawyer cannot reveal classified evidence in the person's defense until the government has a chance to review it.

The manual, sent to Capitol Hill on Thursday and scheduled to be released later by the Pentagon, is intended to track a law passed last fall by Congress restoring President Bush's plans to have special military commissions try terror-war prisoners. Those commissions had been struck down earlier in the year by the Supreme Court.

The Pentagon manual could spark a fresh confrontation between the Bush administration and Congress — now led by Democrats — over the treatment of the nation’s terrorism suspects.

Last September, Congress — then led by Republicans — sent Bush a bill granting wide latitude in interrogating and detaining captured enemy combatants. The legislation also prohibited some of the worst abuses of detainees like mutilation and rape, but granted the president leeway to decide which other interrogation techniques are permissible.

Anyone out there remember any of this being part of the civics & history classes that you took? Did YOU learn in school that the US was just another rogue nation that cut swathes thru it enemies with no regard to basic human decency? That tortured, maimed and KILLED in the name of "National Security"?

I must have been in the parking lot lighting up that day.

A Toss Off That Means Something....

South Bend Tribune...Wrong, Wrong, WRONG!!!! (Part Deux)

Yesterday I had a total hissy fit!! Over and over in the South Bend Tribune print and online editions you see junk like this.....

State of the State: Daniels makes appeal to Demos

Hmmm, seems to be something wrong with that sentence.....

So, I checked dictionary.com and came up with this:

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) -
dem·o /ˈdɛmoʊ/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[dem-oh] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –noun, plural dem·os. Informal.
1. demonstration (defs. 4,6).
2. demonstrator (def. 5).
3. a phonograph record or tape recording of a new song or of one performed by an unknown singer or singing group, distributed to disc jockeys, recording companies, etc., to demonstrate the merits of the song or performer.

and this......

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) -
Dem /dɛm/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[dem] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation–noun Informal.
1. a member of the Democratic party.
2. the Dems, the Democratic party.

Well, I have to admit that I went a little crazy. I emailed a friend of mine who is a reporter in DC to have him check his AP Stylebook (reporters bible for guidelines in things like this) and after a bit, he let me know that Demo is an archaic diminutive for Democrat that has not been used in many years, and that DEM is the one cited in the AP Stylebook. (there is an AP Stylebook online, but it is paid subscription)

I would like to credit Fred Dodd at the South Bend Tribune for looking into this (after an admittedly semi-pissed off voice mail from me) and calling a meeting with his copy editors. They discussed it, and agreed that DEMO is not the correct diminutive to use, and from now on their policy will be to use DEM.

Now, you might be wondering why I got all hopped up about this, and I will tell you.
For YEARS, the strategists on the right have been using words to try and pigeonhole Democrats, Progressives & Liberals. They say "Democrat Party" when it should be "Democratic Party". (One reason given for this is to emphasize democRAT) They say "Looney Left, Looney Liberals" and all that other garbage. In my humble opinion and many others I have asked, DEMO sounds really close to DUMBO or DUMMO.
I am very impressed that Mr Dodd and his editors took the time to correct something that they could have very easily ignored. (well, not really, but they didn't know what a pain in the ass I could be)

Looking forward to the first Tribune headline using the correct term, DEM!!!!


Cross Posted at Left In Aboite

Of Wedgies and Tinfoil, One Womans' View

This afternoon when the "Breaking News" was all about how Abu Gonzales sent a letter saying that all of a sudden FISA "Was Our Friend", I knew something was up.
I ain't Glenn Greenwald, so go read him here.
I do have too much time on my hands.

Do you guys remember what was all the rage Monday & Tuesday? Well I do.




From Keiths' show last nite....

The two night special season opener of "24".

GREENWALD: Well, we know how susceptible people are to fear, some of it with good reason. The tragedy, as we know, has been how this administration has played on people‘s fears, and how Fox News and Fox in general has used it over and over and over again.

As you say, people can tell the difference. This is fiction. What we‘re dealing with in the world at times is fact. You know, of course, the question is, can this administration tell the difference, given that every day we get a different reason about who we should be afraid of, why we should be afraid, and why we went to war.

OLBERMANN: And the old line, of course, seems to apply here, about people insisting TV does not impact the public‘s perceptions, and then you point out, Well, gee whiz, all those advertisers must have wasted every dollar they ever spent on television.

And what's going to happen tomorrow? Abu gets grilled by the Senate Select Committee On Intelligence.

Stop and think a minute. Those people who aren't total phreaks like us, they just pick up bits and pieces of the news as they go along with life.

THEY WEDGED THIS PERFECTLY.
Yesterday the innoculated the masses.... "Oh, Jack tortures!!! Jack taps phones!! No time to get stinking warrants!!!"

Today, an announcement that isn't an announcement came out.

If the Pres and his cronies didn't have a problem with abiding by the FISA court, WHAT THE FU*K was that hongo deal last year about?

But now they have plausible deniability. "Oooooh, see we're being GOOD."

Tomorrow they refuse to talk about anything and cloak themselves behind the horrors of the upcoming nuclear war & the fact that they are already "following the law" even if there is no proof.

And then top it off with....

The Doomsday Clock

Wrong, Wrong, WRONG!!!!

State of the State: Daniels makes appeal to Demos

INDIANAPOLIS -- Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels urged a newly divided General Assembly to cooperate in moving Indiana forward, while also using his State of the State speech Tuesday night to tout initiatives that include full-day kindergarten, outsourcing the Hoosier Lottery and raising cigarette taxes to fund health programs.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source
dem·o /ˈdɛmoʊ/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[dem-oh] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –noun, plural dem·os. Informal.
1. demonstration (defs. 4,6).
2. demonstrator (def. 5).
3. a phonograph record or tape recording of a new song or of one performed by an unknown singer or singing group, distributed to disc jockeys, recording companies, etc., to demonstrate the merits of the song or performer.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source
Dem /dɛm/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[dem] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation–noun Informal.
1. a member of the Democratic party.
2. the Dems, the Democratic party.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Origin: 1830–40, Americanism; shortening of Democrat]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Hmm, How Do You Send A Video To Congress?

LonelyDem07....

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait....

Bill Moyers Is BACK!!!!!

Bill Moyers to Return to PBS With Weekly Show -- Starting with Look at Press and Iraq
Published: January 13, 2007 11:45 PM ET

NEW YORK Bill Moyers is returning to PBS in April with a weekly public affairs series, ''Bill Moyers Journal,'' that resurrects the name of his first public television series for a new century.

Moyers, 72, did two specials for PBS last year, and both the work and response ''whetted my appetite for more.''

''People keep writing or stopping me on the street to suggest stories that are not being reported and voices that are not being heard,'' said the former press secretary for President Lyndon Johnson. ''A lot of Americans long for more than conventional wisdom, celebrity pundits, predictable opinions and safe analysis of the obvious.''

The first episode on April 25 discusses the role of the press before the invasion of Iraq.

Bwahahaha.... Looks Like Crime Doesn't Pay!!

Here

Convicted lawmakers may lose pensions
By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jan 12, 3:49 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, behind bars for bribery, can at least be consoled by the federal pension he'll continue to collect. Current or future lawmakers convicted of crimes may not be so lucky.

The Senate on Friday voted 87-0 to strip away the pensions of members of Congress convicted of white-collar crimes such as bribery, perjury and fraud. That could result in benefit losses of more than $100,000 a year.

Did Tweety Put The Smackdown On "Democrat" Party?

It was brief, but it looks like Chris Matthews may have put the hammer down on the "Democrat" meme.

At the end of the show, Ron Christie was talking and he said
"..... the Democrat .... (pause, nod and finger wag at Chris) The DEMOCRATIC party......"

Thank you Jesus.

Many interesting reasons as to Democrat vs. Democratic here...

Why Shorten Democratic?

"Democrat Party" was a 2004 election linguistics trick cooked up by the Republican Party which was supposedly focus-grouped to sound more negative. If you go back through President Bush's speeches on the campaign trail and his surrogates, you will find "Democrat Party" used when trying to slur the party.

This goes back long before 2004, especially in Republican convention speeches. This discusssion has a variety of theories going back to the 60s. One point made is the "democrat party" sounds like "bureaucrat party", so a negative association is created. It's interesting because "Democratic Senator" or "Democrats endorse XYZ" really don't have that same negative ring.

So You Don't Have To....

I read the scum...

(You have to wade thru alot of "end of world" shit to get to some of these.....)
World Net Daily

Kupelian reveals 'pro-choice' movement's 'skeletons in the closet' in live teleseminar
Posted: January 13, 2007
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

With the anniversary of the Supreme Court's infamous Roe v. Wade decision just around the corner, WND Managing Editor David Kupelian will speak with hundreds of telephone callers Tuesday night in a special, live teleseminar titled "Abortion Marketing Exposed!"

Kupelian is the author of the controversial best seller, "The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom." Many who have read chapter nine – titled "Blood Confessions: How lying marketers sold America on unrestricted abortion" – say it has profoundly changed the way they see the issue.
(snip)

"On the call," says Kupelian, "I will be exposing how radicals and deceitful marketers sold America on legalized abortion, and how millions of us continue to be manipulated and deceived by them every day. But by unmasking these marketers of evil – and by examining the powerful techniques and strategies they use to fool us – we'll also discover how you and I can turn the tide and finally end the tragedy and injustice of abortion."

NewsMax

The Looming Democratic Party Civil War
Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
Friday, Jan. 12, 2007

Iraq is not the only place that is threatening to dissolve into the anarchy and bloodletting of a civil war.

It's about to happen to the Democratic Party.

Reacting to Bush's planned "surge" in troop strength, the Democratic leaders in Congress, savoring their victory, are contemplating taking only symbolic steps to protest Bush's war policies, a timidity that will highly displease their leftist boosters.

The liberal activists who funded and impelled the Democratic victory in 2006 did not focus on winning a congressional majority so that it would take merely symbolic action. Symbolic action would have been appropriate for a minority party, but the backers of a party in the majority expect something more.

So the Democrats are about to form their customary firing squad — a circular one — and begin again the battles that ripped their party apart in the late 1960s. The battle lines are the same: The new left vs. the party establishment. Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid are about to squander their credibility with their supporters on the left by failing to cut back, or cut off entirely, funding for the war.

LOL, the Dick Morris one is barely 6 paragraphs.... and he NEEDED a Co-Author? Ha.

Drudge Report

Laura Bush takes literacy campaign to Paris

Jan 15 4:13 PM US/Eastern

US First Lady Laura Bush kicked off a three-day visit to Paris with a UNESCO round table discussion on promoting global literacy.
Bush, a former teacher and high-profile campaigner for literacy worldwide, is an honorary ambassador for the UN agency's decade of literacy.

"Ending illiteracy is a challenge for every country," she told the participants, who included envoys from Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Madagascar and Egypt as well as Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
(snip)
Laura Bush's visit was to continue Monday with a tour of Paris's new Quai Branly museum of tribal arts, as well as the newly-refurbished Musee de L'Orangerie, which hosts some of Claude Monet's best-known water lily murals.

Imagined conversation 'tween GeeDubya & Pickles.....

"George, I landed in Paris!! It's just lovely!! I saw Monets' "Water Lilies"!!'
"Honey, be careful!! You might fall in the pond and kitch a cold!"

Thank God For My Hometown & McClatchy!!!

Look to the right....

Hey fTucker!!!!

Guess Chuckles got his door prize!!!

A Clerk's Blog Spells Trouble

It all started with a simple video rental. Who knows where it will end?

Potomac Video store clerk Charles Williamson, 28, posted a message on his blog, Freelance Genius, Dec. 23 that described how he set up a movie rental account for MSNBC host Tucker Carlson at the MacArthur Boulevard store the day before.

MSNBC talker Tucker Carlson might want to rent DVDs by mail from now on. (By Craig Blankenhorn -- Msnbc Via Associated Press)
=

"I could tell you what he and his ridiculously wasped-out female companion (wife?) rented if you really want to know," he wrote. "I won't tell you where he lives, though. That would be wrong and stupid." Williamson also joked that he wouldn't send 10,000 copies of Jon Stewart's best-selling political satire, "America (The Book)," to Carlson's home; Stewart ridiculed Carlson on "Crossfire" before the 2004 election.

A week later, Williamson had forgotten all about it, he told us yesterday. That is, until Carlson, 37, reappeared at the video store and, said Williamson, "got pretty aggressive." According to Williamson, Carlson confronted him about the blog and said he viewed the post as a threat to him and his wife. "He said, 'If you keep this [expletive] up, I will [expletive] destroy you,' " Williamson recalled.

The blog in question? Freelance Genius