Emily & Erika
5/31/07

Happy Birthday Mom!

First, sorry it took me so long to post this -- I've been away from my computer all afternoon. Second, no, I didn't see it. My pseudo-TiVo decided to stop recording Olbermann for some reason. I only noticed it after missing Friday's and Monday's shows. Dang! (Thanks again for the great service, Cablevision!) But I'll start checking YouTube for that segment -- should show up there soon. And hey, don't miss Olbermann tonight -- his guest is Al Gore. Olbermann's also going to report on Cindy Sheehan leaving the Democratic Party in protest over their war-funding vote. Which is a shame, but I can't blame her. Anyway, thanks for the heads-up and the above link! --Gary

Good for you, Teghan! --Gary

Among the 37 Democratic senators who voted "yes" on the funding bill (out of 51 total -- only 14 voted "no," and most of them [including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama] did so after the bill was a sure thing and a "no" vote was safe) were presidential contender Joe Biden (talks big, but...), Dianne Feinstein (prominent critic of Bush, but...), Nebraska's own Ben Nelson (what else? He's a DINO: Democrat In Name Only), and surprisingly three newcomers who were voted in with the "Democratic sweep" last November: Milkuski of Missouri (she was helped by the Michael J. Fox TV ad), Tester of Montana ("the liberal with the conservative haircut"), and Webb of Virginia (who narrowly won against George "Macaca" Allen). Sorry for that long sentence! :-)

What were they thinking? On his website, Webb explained himself (I'm paraphrasing): "We didn't have enough votes in the Senate to overturn a veto by Bush, so we may as well vote for it so the troops get the money they need." But one commentator (kos of DailyKos) nailed him on this: "Webb, like most of his colleagues, bought into the b.s. right-wing frame that voting against this supplemental was voting against our troops. And the congressional Democrats were wholly incapable of making the ridiculously simple observation that they were funding the troops, it was Bush who was vetoing that money."

The Democrats lost because they let Bush define the terms: "It's not about me fighting an illegal war, it's about the Democrats not supporting the troops!" The Democrats are still afraid of Bush, and still afraid of the names the Republicans might call them. Pathetic!

Even so, I haven't given up on them, as there is still a lot they can do -- IF they work up the courage to, and IF Bush doesn't declare himself Dictator before that happens. The problem for them, though, is that they will have to do all that, PLUS regain the trust of the voters who put them in office.... Tall order.

Jon Stewart described the Democrats' strategy like this: "You are NOT going out until you finish your homework! ...unless you want to go out."

Al Gore's waiting game (I hope that's what it is) is working: If he announced his candidacy today, all the other Democrats would just disappear... as would the Republicans. If you're reading this, Al, ANNOUNCE! :-)

Gore got off a good line a few days ago. Chief White House Liar Tony Snow made this comment about Gore's book: "I don't know if they're going to do a reprinting of the book to try to get the facts straight. The fact-checkers may have to take a look at it." To which Gore responded: "This book, unlike the President's State of the Union Address, has been fact-checked."

Time Magazine did a great photo essay on Gore recently -- check it out here on their website. (Cool office, Al! [picture 20])

BTW, where are all the pictures from last weekend? I would love to see those too.

I got a few, from Old Chicago -- but the lighting was iffy for my camera, and not many of the shots are acceptable. But I do have a few I can put up soon. --Gary

We always like pictures! ...So, do you feel any different? :-) --Gary

Jerome credited Coast to Coast as being the first to break the Dubai Port story and he hopes the same thing will happen here. I haven't heard this story anywhere else yet. I only saw the last of Olbermann last night. Has he mentioned it yet?

The Corsi story is the one I linked to below. So far, that's the only place I've seen that mentions this -- other than the White House page, which printed the full text of the directive with no comment. It is being discussed a little in the Democratic "underground" -- like here on the GOTV site -- but nobody in the so-called "mainstream media" (or M$M as the cool crowd calls it) has mentioned it. But then, they didn't make any noise when Bush stole two elections; and they cheered when Bush started an illegal war...so why make a fuss about his plan to become dictator? --Gary

Sounds like everyone had a fun time in Lincoln last weekend. I wish I could have been there!

We missed ya! --Gary

If you think I'm kidding, read this. (Complete text of the actual directive here, on the official White House site.)

Normally I would have regarded this as just one more example of Bush's lunacy that would be corrected by impeaching him, or at least replacing him at the next election. But after yesterday, I think he may well get away with it. Yesterday, after calling Bush "the worst president in history," Jimmy Carter fell all over himself to rapidly retract the comment. Also yesterday, the Democratic cowards in Congress completely caved in and gave Bush a blank check for the war. So I'm not really expecting anyone in Washington to stand up against Bush any more -- they will wag their fingers and reprimand him, but they won't do anything. And the way is now clear for Bush to ignore -- or abolish -- Congress any time he wants to. Just use any occurrence for an excuse -- another hurricane, another school shooting, or even a protest march in the streets -- and the Decider makes himself the Emperor. Abolish the November elections? He can do it. Stay in office past 2009? He can do it. Imprison anyone he wants without a trial and without seeing a lawyer, for as long as he wants? ...Oh wait, Congress already gave him the power to do that last year....

Why didn't the media cover this seizure of power? Because they weren't ordered to! Note that the White House did not issue a press release -- meaning the talking-head news-readers had nothing to read! So therefore, nothing happened -- leaving them free to cover the big stories like American Idol and Paris Hilton. Bread and circuses.... (See the Latin page, Part 2 if you don't know what that refers to.) Sorry for this cheerful note; I'm a little depressed today! :-)

Those of you who have already read Part 2 might want to look at it again. I tweaked it a little bit and made the explanation of the letter J a bit clearer, hopefully.

Hey, has everyone seen the new Hillary Clinton ad featuring Bill Clinton? (It's like five minutes long, so it's not really a commercial-type ad I don't think.) But it's really good. Watch it and be reminded how a real President sounds....

It's funny, even though this is a "red state," I've had lots of positive responses to that ribbon. And only one negative one. (Somebody took the magnetic ribbon off my bumper, tore it into little pieces, and stuck the pieces to the car hood. I now display the ribbon on the inside of the back window.) Anyway, it makes you wonder if this state is really as "red" as the media tells us...

And speaking of politics, which one of the declared candidates is closest to your positions? Here's an interesting quiz that will tell you. Give it a try! It's easy, and short. (Turns out I'm closest to Kucinich, but he's a real longshot -- I'm holding out for Gore to declare.)

I've got the first two ready right now, so I guess without further ado I'll put them up. (The first one is kind of short, so I'll put both up at the same time.) I figure a new installment every week or so. I have no idea how many there will be or where this is going to lead, but at least I've got two done! Enjoy, if possible! --Gary

In other webpage news, look for a new feature soon. By popular demand (well, one person asked for this, and I assume others would too but they're too shy), I will be starting a summer-school series of Latin lessons! (Not Latin dancing -- the Latin language.)

Don't worry, it will be an easy course. No studying, no homework, no quizzes, no grades. But by the end of the summer, you will be measurably smarter than you are now!

We've enjoyed this weeks front pages. Erika has especially liked looking at them.

Glad you like 'em. It may not be "everybody's" idea of "humor," but it sure makes me laugh. (And Erika!) :-) --Gary

Eighty firefighters from Lincoln are going to Greensburg today to help out. And the governor of Kansas says she plans to talk to Bush about the lack of National Guards available to help our country. He's visiting Greensburg today.

And Cheney will be in the Middle East this week.

Ah! That's the public opinion poll they ran to accompany the list put together by Time's editors (here). I'm a little surprised Bush even made the public opinion list, but you're right: there he is at #97. (Note that Sanjaya came in at #3!) I understand the right-wing talkshow robots (like Sean Hannity on Fox, for example) were full of outrage yesterday that Time neglected to add their beloved Fuehrer to the list. :-) --Gary

Are you sure?? I went through the whole list and didn't see him. And #97 was someone named Ho Ching, a Chinese investor. Send me a link from where you saw the Chimp-in-Chief! :-) --Gary

Hey, I just saw that Time Magazine's list of the "100 most influential people in the world" came out, and guess what? Bush isn't on it! :-)

I like that the Democrats in the Senate delivered the funding bill to Bush today, on the "mission accomplished" anniversary. Kinda puts a spotlight on things. I just heard that Bush has asked for airtime tonight at 5 pm our time. I doubt it's to announce he's going to sign the bill.... Rather, he will shake his finger at Congress (and the 70% of us who support that bill) and lecture us on 9/11 and how the terrorists will follow us home if we leave Iraq. Either that, or he's going to announce that he's going to start bombing Iran. Or that he's going to round up all the Democrats and other traitors and send 'em to Gitmo. Who knows? --Gary

I hope you got to read our front page yesterday; lots of quotes from the war-cheerleaders in the press, from four years ago... kinda sickening. If anyone missed it, you can still see it here. (Be sure to scroll down past the cartoon for more -- like this gem from Chris Matthews, exactly four years ago today: "We're proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who's physical, who's not a complicated guy like Clinton or even like Dukakis or Mondale, all those guys, McGovern. They want a guy who's president. Women like a guy who's president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It's simple. We're not like the Brits." Bleahh!! --Gary