Already?

That's right-the 2008 Presidential campaign just started. Russ Feingold is out. McCain is in. Craigorian Chant will remain undecided at this early date.

Except to say - please oh please let Newt get the GOP nomination.

Please.

Not Ready to Make Nice

Payback time.

Tracking It Down

The Departed (Kind of Gushy Review Here) movie soundtrack features a bunch of 60's rock: "Gimme Shelter" by the Stones and "Comfortably Numb" by Van Morrison. Good stuff, but nothing you didn't hear 1000's of times already and gave parts of the movie a rather dated sound.

But right in the heart of the action comes this amazing song - traditional Celtic instruments combined with hardcore punk guitar and roaring lyrics, like the bastard love-child of the Chiefians and Anti-Flag. It's an absolutly perfect a song for a bunch of Boston-Irish cops and Boston-Irish Mobsters to do epic violence to.

So I finally tracked the song down (Anything on the Internet) It's "I'm Shipping up to Boston" by The Dropkick Murphys. A great Village Voice story on the song and the band and the movie is here:

So it's weirdly thrilling to know that a legendary 63-year-old film director (or at least the music supervisor he hired) thought to include a song from these guys on the soundtrack of a movie that so perfectly reflects the corner of the world they represent. The Departed, after all, is a movie about Irish people doing violent shit in Boston, and the Dropkick Murphys are a band that sing about Irish people doing violent shit in Boston; it's a match made in heaven. Scorsese is better at picking the perfect song for his scenes than any other director working (fuck a Tarantino), but I'm still amazed that he managed to nail this one so completely. "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" also shows up earlier in the movie, as Leonardo DiCaprio does pushups in jail. And the movie wouldn't really suffer if the song played over every single scene, sort of like "Scarborough Fair" in The Graduate.

The song is playing on the band's Myspace Page.

Last Gasps

Now the new, improved Congress doesn't take office till the new year, so there's still some time for some last gasps of stupidity.

Like an attempt to get John "I hate diplomacy" Bolton back in as UN ambassador:

Word has just reached me from a well-placed source that the White House has continued to push John Bolton's confirmation prospects as US Ambassador to the United Nations despite the election outcome.

Another highly placed source has informed me that in just a few minutes Senator Lincoln Chafee is calling a press conference to state categorically that he will not support John Bolton's confirmation in the upcoming lame duck session.

The Bolton confirmation will be officially dead in a few minutes.

One last cheer for Lincoln Chafee, who was the best guy in the whole Senate with a R after his name. But we needed that 51st seat, so he had to go.

A lot of the good things that are going to happen with the new Congress will take the form of bad things that don't happen.

How to Avoid a Thumping

Move massively to the left. That is the lesson of the Govenator's 2006 reelection, standing proud and true among the Republican wreckage.

Now some will try and spin Schwarzenegger as moving to the "center" but the truth is after his own "thumping" in the 2005 special election, he has been firmly planted on the left. His chief of staff is now an out lesbian, former chief of staff to Grey Davis. In fact, he pretty much working the exact same ground that Grey Davis did.

He's put in big spending increase for education and campaigned (successfully) for a host of bond measures to massively increase infrastructure spending. He's signed a minimum wage increase and a global warming measure. He's said US troop should come home from Iraq. Sure, he's gotten wormy about finances in order to offer no tax increases, but it’s not like Grey Davis didn't play these exact same games.

So given the fact that policy-wise Schwarzenegger is indistinguishable from a Democrat, why not vote for the global celebrity? Its fun. It’s funny. It only stops being funny when Schwarzenegger actually acts like a Republican. Now he knows better.

The same California voters just elected Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown Attorney General by an even larger margin that Schwarzenegger won. Donkeys won for Lt. Governor, SecState and Treasurer, not to mention kept large margins in both houses of the State Assembly and Senate. The Govenator is a party of one.

The lesson of Schwarzenegger is act like a Democrat, get elected like a Democrat. I seriously doubt that this is a model the GOP can export to the rest of the Country.

Dedication

These go out to all the Republicans are now Gone Daddy Gone:

My Side

Now Rumsfeld is gone!

I think I just pulled something, I'm gloating so hard.

These elections are fun. We should have them more offen.

Here Come the Boom!

Yesterday was a great party and W got stuck with the bill.

As of right now the Dems have picked up 28 seats in the House with 13 still too close to call. Boom! Madam Speaker!

We have four Senate seats in the books, and leads in two more. The margins are razor thin (>2,000 votes in Montana and >8,000 in Virgina) and headed for recounts, but if those numbers hold up, we got the Senate as well.


Not a single seat the Donkeys were defending was lost.

We also picked up six Govenorships but Schwarzenegger crusied to reelection. More on that later.

John Doolittle has escaped the forces of light. Charlie Brown came so close (49-46) but the little eel sliped away. My guess is the indictments will catch him before Charlie gets another chance in 2008.

Pompo is gone baby gone! Congratulations Congressman McNerney!

There is just so much good stuff happening on this election map I might lose my mind.

Rick "Man on Dog" Santorum lost 59-41!

Katherine "Florida 2000" Harris lost 60-38.

J.D. "Annoy the Hell out of Craig on Hardball" Hayworth is toast.

South Dakota's abortion ban went down hard.

Good Day. Good Day.

We got the House

Turns out we can count to 15 after all. Some video from Chris to watch while the rest of the results come in:

Battle On

The first polls are starting to close and the first results are rolling in. Bernie Sanders will be the first Socialist elected to the US Senate, the Dems have won the Govenor's race in Ohio. All the easy races will get called right away. The races that we really care about...will take a little longer.

Refresh...Refresh...Refresh.

You have about two and a half hours left to vote in California. You have about three minutes left if you live in Arkansas.

I'll continue to remained focused like a laser beam on these election resu...oohh look Britney dumpted the lump. Shiny.

Day of Days

Election Day! Can you feel it!

Get yourself to a polling place and vote! Doolittle we are coming for you! Pombo we are coming for you!

The exit polls this year are under lock and key, so early numbers to pore over will be hard(er) to get. Those exit polls only raised false hopes in 2004, so maybe its for the best.

Dick Cheney is spending election day hunting, so if you are in South Dakota today, duck!

Post your exciting tales of voting in comments. Or even your not exciting tales.

Election Day!

Let's Review

Links to Craigorian Chant recomendations here and here. Just print them out and take them with you into the polling place.

The Waiting

Is the hardest part.

Prediction Ceremony

I have spent the day in a sweat-lodge of my own construction, burning pages and pages of news articles and polling results and inhaling the smoke. At the end of the ritual, I drink an entire bottle of cough syrup. The results of Tuesday election have come to me in a vision.

The Democrats will gain 30 seats in the House and take control.

They will gain five seats in the Senate, resulting in a 50-50 tie. The strain from all the close votes and having to serve as a constant tie-breaker will drive Dick Cheney to yet another heart attack.

I can see it clear as day. I am now going to go lie down.

Work the Steps

So after starting off with a "never did it" and then moving to a "Yes I buy Meth, but I didn't use it" and "Massages only, no sex" super-minister Ted Haggard is today doing confession:

Saying that he was a "deceiver and liar" who had given in to his dark side, the Rev. Ted Haggard confessed to sexual immorality Sunday in a letter read from the pulpit of the megachurch he founded.

The disgraced former president of the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents 30 million evangelical Christians, apologized and said "because of pride, I began deceiving those I love the most because I didn't want to hurt or disappoint them.

Now, here comes the worse part:

"The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality. And I take responsibility for the entire problem. I am a deceiver and a liar. There's a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life," he said.

The man is gay. He has spent his whole life hating that fact, trying to surpress that fact. He's tried to pray it away. He build a giant church and an entier movement around dening what he is. Now I would hope that exsposing this lie will give conservative Christians some pause, but my guess is next week we will again be hearing about how being gay is a choice and how the evil homosexuals are trying to recruit your kids and blah blah blah.

Heist

The adventures of Ahmad Chalabi in Iraq:

When the election came, Chalabi was wiped out. His Iraqi National Congress received slightly more than 30,000 votes, only one-quarter of 1 percent of the 12 million votes cast - not enough to put even one of them, not even Chalabi, in the new Iraqi Parliament. There was grumbling in the Chalabi camp. One of his associates said of the Shiite alliance: "We know they cheated. You know how we know? Because in one area we had 5,000 forged ballots, and when they were counted, we didn't even get that many." He shrugged.


American Classic The Sting:

Floyd: Doyle: I KNOW I gave him four THREES. He had to make a SWITCH. We can't let him get away with that.

Doyle Lonnegan: What was I supposed to do - call him for cheating better than me, in front of the others?

Deploy the Quote!

I'm always looking for a chance to deploy my favorite JFK quote:

Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.

So it turns out the Iraq War is now being disowned by a bunch of people whose idea it was in the first place!

Oooookkkkkkeeeee.

Here's the lead:

A leading evangelist and outspoken opponent of gay marriage has given up his post as president of the National Association of Evangelicals while a church panel investigates allegations he paid a man for sex.

and here's the kicker:

"It is important for you to know that he confessed to the overseers that some of the accusations against him are true. He has willingly and humbly submitted to the authority of the board of overseers, and will remain on administrative leave during the course of the investigation," the e-mail stated. A copy was obtained by KMGH-TV in Denver.

I'm not a big follower of the Evangical community, but TPM assures me that:

this is the conservative equivalent of Jesse Jackson getting caught wearing a hood at a Klan cross burning. The political implications are enormous.

TNR points us to the following pic, which say bit more than a thousand words.

Now this isn't the epic hipocrisy that you think it is. Haggard is an outspoken opponent of gay marriage. He is not an outspoken opponent of three year relationships with gay prostitutes.

Not Leaving

Bush made it clear yesterday: Donald Rumsfeld is never leaving. Ever. So long as he is President. A quick check of the historic record reveals that there has never been a Secretaries of Defense that served the full two terms of a Presidency. Ever. The closest was Robert McNamara and you don't want to be mentioned in the same sence as him when we talk Defence Secretaries.

Does anybody think that Rumsfeld is worthy of being the longest serving Defence Secretary in history. Based on all his great achievements? Please.

Poll Action

Ruy Teixeira does the math so you don't have to.

Words are Good but Video is Better

Grasping at Straws Time

So the GOP Machine took something Kerry said out of contex, completely misinterprets it, and completely blew even that complete lie completely out of proportion. This is a conservative movement desperate to change the subject. Because the real subject is Iraq and that is devastating.

More! More!

There is lot of stuff out. Trying to keep up.

A special shout out for Nevada Question Number 7. It would legalize up to one ounce of pot for any purpose. Nevada: Yes, you can do that!

Time to get local.

The Chant is recommending Yes on Measure L which will approve SMUD expansion into Yolo County. SMUD is a publicly owned power company for the Sacramento region. Being publicly owned, it doesn't screw it customers like for-profit utility companies. Power to the people!

I am completely torn on the measure to raise the sales tax in order to pay for a downtown area for the Kings. On one hand, it looks like a great project. To turn the rail yards from eyesore into a super-duper entertainment center would be great. However, giving massive public financing to a new arena is just a sucker move, considering the Kings are owned by the Billionaire Maloof family. Just in case you weren't sure, here's a Carl's Junior commercial touting both their Billion dollar net worth and a $6,000(!) combo meal offered at the Palms Casino, which they own. Yeah, these guys need our help. The Chant says no.

Its Voting Recommendation Time!

Once again I present a handy guild to California ballot measures. We have 13 of these suckers to deal with, let’s get cracking.

1A through 1E: The bond measure. Lets put on some debt and build some stuff. All that stuff you need. Roads and Levees and Schools. People keep coming to California (it’s our celebrity trials and the complete absence of winter) and they are going to need all this stuff. The Chant recommends Yes.

83: More restrictions on sex offenders. Cause if theirs one thing I know, it’s that sex offenders get it easy. Please. Whenever a politico is feeling unpopular they kick sex offenders. Sex offenders are indefensible so no one ever says boo. And they keep having to come up with more and more restrictions and more and more penalties. Well, sooner or later we will have a ballot measure that mandates we torture to death everyone convicted of a crime with the word “sex” in it. The Chant recommends No.

84: More bonds. Yeah. Water. Water good. Get thirsty without it. Of course too much water means we drowned. But this measure deals with that problem too. There is no problem with the word “water” in it that this Proposition doesn’t fix. The Chant recommends Yes.

85: Parental notification for minors seeking abortions. California just voted this down last year. And yet they keep trying. The Chant recommends No.

86: Tax on cigarettes. Sure, why not? Tax those suckers right out of existence. The Chant recommends Yes.

87: Tax on California oil producers. This is the big one. It dings the oil companies to fund new alternative energy programs. If we are serious about global warming, this is how we deal with it. The Chant recommends Yes.

88: Parcel tax for kindergarten. Think of the children. The Chant recommends Yes.

89: Public finance of campaigns. You want big money out of politics? This is a start. The Chant recommends Yes.

90: Eminent Domain “reform.” This comes out of the Kelo decision, which allowed local jurisdictions to buy property for private economic use. I was pretty uncomfortable with Kelo and would be happy to support a limited restriction on eminent domain. But this law contains hidden measures to make any kind of government regulation a “taking” that property owners would have to be compensated for. Environmental regulations, zoning, just about everything local government does would suddenly become too expensive to do. I hate it when they play games with propositions. This one needs to go down hard. The Chant recommends No.

Dick Cheney: Evil

Cheney continues to claim that US election are responsible for the death toll in Iraq.

Office of the Vice-President stepping up paper shredding operation:

You better get crackin’, Dick — that evidence won’t destroy itself!

Stop!

Peter Beinart catches Rove spinning history:

In today's Washington Post, Karl Rove is already spinning midterm defeat. "1938 was a huge wipeout for the Democrats," he notes. "Do you think that was the end of the New Deal?"

Actually, it was the end of the New Deal: Nothing FDR passed after that came close to rivaling the accomplishments of his first term, in particular Social Security and the Wagner Act.

The end of Bushism as a domestic force will be the clearest victim of a Democratic victory. A positive agenda will be hard to do, but the damage will end.

Only the Lonely

Pity the poor Senate Candidate, who labors and loses in complete obscurity. At least when Katherine Harris loses everyone will be watching. T-bogg show us the sorry spectacle of Dick Mountjoy (snik), who, in little more than a week is going to lose huge to DiFi here in California and who no one knows about:

And few people seem to know who Mountjoy is, despite his role as one of the architects of 1994's Proposition 187, which would have made it illegal for undocumented immigrants to receive many government benefits. Mountjoy's 29% support among all registered voters in the most recent Los Angeles Times poll is less than the 34% of state voters enrolled as Republicans. And in a July Field poll one of the last to ask the question — 62% of voters said they did not know enough about Mountjoy to have an opinion about him.

Little has changed since then. Feinstein entered the late-summer push with more than $8 million in the bank to Mountjoy's $21,000, making it likely that this will be the second California race in a row for the Senate in which the Republican challenger was unable to air crucial television ads in the final weeks of the campaign.

The next financial reports aren't due until today, but even Republicans seem to have given up. The National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee — a key funding and organizing tool for Republican Senate incumbents and hopefuls — doesn't even list Mountjoy as a candidate on its website.

Whats so sad about the situation is that Dick has such a low name reconition when he has such a great name. I think we owe it to the people of California to spread the word.

Learn all about Dick Mountjoy.

Saturday Night Tunes

U2 and Greenday

"The Saints are Coming"

BattleStar Tonight

Last Week's hot drop was one of the coolest things I have ever witnessed.



Prospect article on SciFi and politics found here. All my nerdy pursuits combined as one.

Quote of the Day

Isn't it interesting that Iraq now -- this Muslim country that 10 years ago nobody even heard of, all right, is now impacting on how we live in America.

Bill O'Reilly, Too Stupid to Live.

How does he remember to breath?

Words are Good but Video is Better

Now You're Getting Nasty

Democrat Harold Ford is on the verge of becoming the first Black Senator from Tennessee since Reconstruction. The Republican in the race is running a radio ad where Jungle Drums play in the background every time Ford's name is mentioned.

Freaking Jungle Drums.

Don't Change the Subject!

So the New Jersey Supreme Court is about to issue a ruling on Gay Marrage today:

The New Jersey Supreme Court is poised to release its highly anticipated decision Wednesday in a case brought by seven gay couples who say the state constitution allows them to marry, said Winnie Comfort, a spokeswoman for the state judiciary.

New Jersey is one of only five states with neither a law nor a state constitutional amendment blocking same-sex marriage. As a result, the state is more likely than others to allow gays to wed, said advocacy groups on both sides.

Only Massachusetts — by virtue of a 2003 ruling from that state's top court — allows gay marriages.

Now, the court could rule agaist gay marrage. But its likely to rule in its favor. Which I wouldn't mind at all, except two weeks before the election. It would change the subject. And right now we don't want to change the subject. Gay marrage would sudenly become a big issue again.

Right now when we talk about serious issues, we are talking about Iraq. When we are talking about wierd/funny/sad, we are talking the Mark Foley scandle. Both of those issues are great for Dems right now. We are winning on those issues right now. I think that liberals will win on Gay Marrage, but not for 10-20 years. We are winning on these other issues right now.

Don't change the subject.

UDATE: The ruling came down: equal rights for all. It give the NJ leg 180 days to act so it kicks the can down the road past the election. It has become just one more story in the news mix, like Rush being an ass Its not that I beleive that this fight should be won, I question if it can be won.

I'll give you this

Fine, we will have to score one for Larry's grand conspiracy of voter fraud theory:

U.S. Senate candidate James Webb's last name has been cut off on part of the electronic ballot used by voters in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville because of a computer glitch that also affects other candidates with long names, city officials said yesterday.

This is just stupid. The computer is cutting off the names of candidates. You will look for James Webb on the ballot and not find it. Conspiracy of dunces.

Under Pressure

The strain is starting to show. Richard Pombo is now refusing to talk to the media completely.

Lies in, Lies Out.

Time for a novel idea: Lies got us in to Iraq, lies have been keeping us there, and lies should get us out.

There were no weapons of mass destruction, no connection to 9/11; we were not greeted as liberators. Those are the lies that got us into the war.

Things are not going well in Iraq. Lots of our soldiers are dying. Lots of Iraqi's are dying. Things are not going to get better. These are the lies that keep us in Iraq.

So lies should get us out. We could do the classic "declare victory and leave" that was suggested in Vietnam. Sure the reality will be chaos and death. But since when has reality mattered? Or maybe we could leave Iraq and the Bush administration could just lie and say we are still staying the course. That’s the ticket! US troops leave, Bush still give speech after speech about courage and stay the course and victory is near. The administration still feels like manly men and no more troopers will have to die for the sake of Bush's manhood. I bet we could just never tell Bush we've left Iraq and it will work out fine.

Lies get us in, lies get us out.

Only lies can save us now.

The Lies! The Lies!

Says ‘We’ve never been stay the course, George!’

And of course he has.

Better

For those of you who think that Google would be better if it included a scarcastic, exotic-looking library-babe who mocked your search items, I give you

Ms Dewy

Trends I love

Sexy Halloween costumes. Mmmmmmm.

New Number

OK forget the death count for a second. Let look at a different number for Iraq. Reason's Hit and Run (Fun Folks those Libertarian) has got a number:

US forces are firing 275,000 bullets per day in Iraq. Per day.

Is it any wonder that Dems are taking it to the GOP on Iraq. Sex scandels have gotten lots of play lately but if when if when we win it will be because we have won the argument about Iraq.

Spike

Ten US Soldiers were killed in Iraq tody. That makes 69 this month and the overall total to 2,782.

How long, how long must we sing this song.

Grave Robbing

So I took a little trip to the saddest store in the world: the once-great Tower Records. It started with old man Solomon selling records out of the back of his dad's drugstore. It grew into a global chain and a Sacramento institution. But then came iTunes and Wal-Mart and Chapter 11 and now, the great crash. So now the mother of all going-out-of-business sales is under way. Two-hundred million in stuff has got to go. Craigorian Chant World Headquarters is not eight blocks away from the Tower district where it all started. And where it ends. All the books, CDs and DVDs you want, everything must go.

They are a week into the fire sale now. The shelves are maybe one-third empty. The staff is putting their best face on it, because when the stuff is gone, the job is too.

So I pick through the stuff grab a little here and a little there. A sale is a sale, but it feels a bit like making off with the flowers at a funeral.

I'm keeping the yellow bag with the red store logo the clerk puts my stuff in. Souvenir. In a few weeks they might be selling off bigger stuff. If I time it right I might get the store sign or maybe the "Tower" itself.

We are all on our way out. Act accordingly.

300

The United States now has 300 million people.

Discuss.

Can't Be Good

So over the weekend the UN passed sanctions in responce to the nuclear test.

North Korea is calling these sanctions "a declaration of war"

And you thought the Bush Administration used heated rhetoric.

Must...Keep...Track

In 2004 we all went a little crazy keeping track of the Day to Day swings in polls. Which polls were right which sucked and so on. Well that was just one little Presidential race. The 2006 is actually a whole bunch of races. There are something like 7 or 8 Senate races that are worth following and the number of close House races is growing, not shrinking. Its up to something like 50 races at this point. Crunching all these numbers will drive me rather mad, I think.

My best guess is that the Dems will win the House. I know Larry will get on me for chickens and hatching and all that but the number do look really good at this point.

The Senate looks like a 50-50 battle. Literally. I think its going to end up tied 50-50. If the Dems run the table they could end up in control but there's something in the numbers that just calls out 50/50 to me. It would represent a huge gain by the Dems to get to even, but the Vice President breaks ties.

Wait and See. Wait and See.

Movie Review: The Departed

My oh my, what an excellent movie. Just think of it as the slickest, most adult game of "cops and robbers" you ever played. Leonardo DiCaprio (Who I maintain an irrational dislike for) and Matt Damon (who I maintain an irrational affection for) do fine work as an undercover cop and a mobster's police mole. The plot has a beautiful symmetry, as both men try to uncover the identity of the other. I'm trying to remember what thrillers did before cell phones. One of the best scenes in the movie revolves around caller ID.

The supporting cast is a lot of fun. Between Jack Nickelson, Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg(!) there isn't a piece of scenery left unchewed. Marky Mark makes off with many a scene as a foul-mouthed police sergeant.

I need to come up with a movie scoring system unique to Craigorian Chant. Any ideas? This one will score high.

Ouch

OK, so no A's in the World Series. Walk off homer, Four game sweep. Guess it just Detroit's year. Well now that the A's are gone and the Niner's suck, I'm a little hard pressed for any kind of sports team worth following.

Even

The British want out of Iraq.

We are going to get down to "Bush, Laura and Barney" being the only ones supporting the War in Iraq sooner than you think

Video of the Day

Jenna Fisher, who plays Pam on The Office (Mmmmmm) wrote "10 Things You Don't Know About Women" for Esquire. The following is a dramatic reading of said piece by the cast and crew of The Office.

Quote of the Day

"To link me to George Bush is like linking me to an Oscar."

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Fine, Fine

I don't want to encourage this kind of behavior, but the anonymous maniac(dude, at least make up a screen name) who keep posting comments on Jerry McNerney-Richard Pombo race does have a point.

McNerney is a good guy and Richard Pombo is a blight on this earth. If Pombo was any more anti-environment he would bite the heads off of bald eagle chicks.

There is no reason for California, of all places to send a man to Congress whose one mission in life is to destroy the Endangered Species act.

McNernery is closing in the polls and has a real shot. Well played anonymous maniac, well played.

Good Job

Study: 655,000 Iraqis die because of war.

If we just stay 50 more years, there won't be any Iraqi's left, no one will fight us anymore and we can go home. Sounds like a good plan to me.

Oh Sweet Nectar of the Gods

Beer Flavored Potato Chips

Best idea you will hear today.

Conspiracy of the Fool

Craig's First law of conspiracy: don't attribute to malice what what can be attributed to stupidity.

Well the New Republicahas uncovered the true conspiracy at the heart of the Foley matter. The massive coverup of the fact that the Speaker of the House is a complete lackwit:

I refer here, of course, to the fact that Dennis Hastert is a bumbling half-wit--something that became apparent to the world last week but had been common knowledge in Washington for almost a decade. It was roughly eight years ago, after all, that Tom DeLay installed Hastert as his front-man, knowing full well that Hastert was no more capable of being speaker than the average sheepdog, to which he bears a remarkable resemblance. (Just after Hastert accepted the speaker's gig, a reporter asked him how he felt. Hastert's one-word response: "Scared.") But, rather than call DeLay on this lapse in judgment, House Republicans joined forces with the press to perpetrate an elaborate cover-up.

Reading back over the last several years of Hastert coverage, one is astonished by the lengths to which reporters go to avoid outing him as a guileless nincompoop.

Ah ha! Trueth Revealed!

Poll Crack

I can't stop reading polls. So many wonderfully numbers.

One.

After another.

After another.

After another.

Don't Panic

Ok, yes the President of North Korea does seem rather like the villain from a James Bond movie and yes North Korea has just tested a nuclear weapon. And yes this represents a pretty massive strategic failure of the Bush Administration.

But let's not panic. Nuclear Weapons aren't magical. North Korea is still an impoverished little Nation. Its neighbors are much more worried that it will collaspe and trigger a refugee crisis than it start blasting.

Who knows, diplomacy just might happen despite everyone's bad intentions. North Korea can't actually use the nuke without ending as a country. Bush can't attack, no troops and South Korea and Japan would never go alone and we would need their help. And so their is nothing left to do except cut a deal. Or just do nothing. Bush just bring himself to talk to the "evil" and so nothing. Just some fear, and a less stable Far East and a less safe world. So something to worry about.

But don't panic.

Cover Fun

Credit Cards

A few years ago I was over at Craig’s place in Sutter Creek watching TV when this credit card commercial came on. They touted themselves as an essential part of life. Like we’re all super sensitive to bee stings and their the adrenaline shot: Don’t leave home with out it! And Craig kept saying: “What’s the big deal!? It’s a credit card!” So I believe the commercial was for American Express. AmEx may have some nice perks, but it turns out that a lot of credit have some cool benefits themselves

Fast forward to June 26th of this year and I’m driving west on 50 to meet Craig at a bar in downtown Sac to watch a World Cup game. When out of nowhere a rock smashes into my windshield creating a starfish shaped impact mark and 16 inch crack!

Now I didn’t buy the optional insurance that Hertz offered me. And I had a good reason not to: A magazine article I read said don’t do it!

Last December I read a “ways to make your 2006 better” piece in a magazine I bought at the airport in St. Louis on my way out to Sacramento. On of the 50 tips was don’t buy the insurance car rental companies offer you because if you rent the car with a Visa it’s automatically covered (turns out other cards besides Visa offer this).

I arrive at the bar and proceed to tell Craig what happened, then I remembered that article. Hmmm, I wondered if it would actually work.

A day later I called Visa and they said they would cover it. The bill from Hertz actually wasn’t that bad: $209 total for the damage (actually it was only $159, but they added $50 for an “admin fee” because they’re a heartless multi-national corporation). However, Visa wasn’t going to make it easy to get reimbursed because, you know, they’re also a heartless multi-national corporation.

Here is their instructions to me and what I needed to provide them with:

*Copy of cardholder's charge receipt and monthly billing statement verifying the rental transaction

*Copy of initial auto rental agreement (front and back)

*Copy of finalized auto rental agreement (front and back)

*Copy of any correspondence from rental company outlining charges from this loss

*Itemized estimate of repair or repair bill*.

*Copy of police report and/or auto rental company accident report(s)*

*Two photographs of damaged vehicle, if applicable or available

*For holders of personal cards (e.g.: Gold, Classic, and Platinum):
--Copy of your Auto Insurance Declaration Page(s), which provides a summary of coverage
and deductible amount, if you rented within your country of residence.

*If the driver at the time of the accident did NOT have personal automobile insurance, provide a notarized statement indicating that he or she had no insurance

*Copy of your insurance company's settlement for this incident (if applicable)

*If the cost of the rental was included in a travel package or was prepaid, provide a copy of the prepaid voucher and a copy of your travel package invoice

*If the rental was under a company card (e.g. business, corporate, purchasing, or government)
--Copy of a letter from your employer stating that the rental was for business purposes.
--If your rental under the company card, was for non-business use, follow the instructions for
personal cards above.

Well I gave them everything the needed and a week ago the payment finally went through! Turns our credit cards companies aren’t that bad after all. Well, as long as you pay your bills on time, use their credit card regularly, don’t go bankrupt....

But since a lot of credit cards provide this benefit, I guess we’re back to Craig’s original question/criticism...”what’s the big deal? It’s just a credit card.”

The other things to consider are what if I get in 3 accidents in a year? Would Visa handle all of them? Is there a situation where getting the insurance would make sense?

I don’t know, flying out for 10 day trip and absolutely needing a rental car makes that said trip fairly expensive. When you add $15 extra per day for the rental car insurance, it just puts it over the top.

So it’s up to you. I will continue NOT to get the rental car insurance because accidents are sufficiently rare and I know Visa will cover it.

Next time you rent a car, remember this post! But don’t just rely on me. Call your credit card company and ask what benefits they provide. Go to their website and read all fine print about each card. It may pay off in the future!

Shift

Ok, I'm shifting my metaphor. Speaker Hastert is now an anchor to which the feet of the Republican majority is tied.

Glug, Glug, Glug.

Run!

In the middle a pretty bad movie called Without a Paddle, about misadventures in the woods, our heroes are confronted with a bear:

Dan: What are you doing?
Jerry: Taking off my shoes
Dan: Why?
Jerry: Because I run faster with no shoes
Dan: You can't out-run that bear!
Jerry: I don't have to out-run the bear, I just have to out-run you!

Its every man for himself with the House Republicans on le affair de Foley. Everyone is passing the buck, blaming others, and otherwise doing their best to screw their fellows. The slowest guy is the one who will be eaten by a bear. The democrats haven't had to do a thing. They just have to let the GOP tear itself apart.

Oh, and if you have to take bets on who gets eaten, take a look at Speaker Denny Hastert. That is a slow moving man. But for the GOP to dump its House leader a Month before an election is just beyond comprehension. I have no idea how to process the implications.

Gamble

Risk much and you will achieve much.

Or give up an inside-the-park home run.

The inspirational posters never tell you about that second part.

Dear Buddha,

All I want is the A's in the Series and a Democratic Majority in the Congress.

And a pony.

al-Qaeda Wants us to Stay in Iraq

They really do.

Winner!

Does Great Britain even have a national lottery? I'm asking cause I've seem to have won. Three times this week. Which is funny because I've been playing the Italian national lottery for years without a win, but have I've seem to have won the British version without even trying. Yahoo! Mail! needs to tweak its spam filter.

What's funny is that for being the people who invented the language, these English lotto officials sure have lousy English. Really its about the same level as those poor Nigerian officials who just need my bank account for a short time to hold a spare million.

Sex Kills Republicans

So there is a really interesting Washington Post story today on how Democrats survive sex scandals but Republicans don't.

I would say Dems "get away with it" but public humiliation is pretty much a given. But what happens is that Republicans lose their jobs and Democrats don't. Now with Foley I think the creep factor would have done in a Democrat just as fast, but a Republican pol doing the classic cheating on his wife goes down while a Dem seems to survive. Clinton is only the biggest example.

It really does seem like the Democrats just represent a kinder, more forgiving Nation. A Nation that just isn't as hung up on sex. Kinda like France.

UPDATE:I like Tyler's point that Foley isn't a pedophile. Matt Y makes an ever better case, mainly by strategically deploying a photo of Scarlett Johansson. Foley is some sort of ill defined creep. Predatory, very condemable, very sleazy, but not really pedophilia. Really this is more a definitional quible.

Resume the moral condination!

Little Picture, Big Picture

So in the little picture, the Doolittle/Charlie Brown fight is heating up. President Bush is coming into town to fundraise for Doolittle. Airforce One makes a lot of noise when it lands in Sacramento.

Brown is bringing in his own big guns with Westley Clark headlining a fundraiser. I'm connected enought to get an invite to tonight's 500 dollar a plate event, but not rich enought to, you know, actually go.

Big picture - Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House, is taking some serious hits on the Foley scandel. GOPer's are taking shots and the Super-Consertative Washington Times is calling for his resignation.

The real question is does the big picture connect to the little one. Does the fact that Foley has the GOP leadership running for the hills matter to a local Congressional race like Doolittle-Brown? I hope so, but I really don't know.

Catching Breaks

The forces of light have caught some breaks. First, Bob Woodward has a new book out and its highly critical of the President. Now there have been hightly critical books before, but not Bob Woodward books. In fact, Woodward has written three books about the Bush Presidency and others were so positive that the Bush campaign sold the second book from its campaign web page.

But now the worm has turned. Anything Woodward does has a big impact. Nice for him to be critical for a change.

Break number two is our old friend, the sex scandal. Seems that Congressman Mark Foley (R-Florida) has been e-mailing and IMing underage male Congressional pages some rather explicit messages. This is why I always check ID before sending explicit e-mails. Foley has resigned and checked himself into rehad. For extra icky irony, Foley was the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. He may be prosecuted under laws that he wrote himself.

So now the seat is a great pick-up opportunity. The ballots are already printed, so Foley's name stays on the ballot. The GOP can name a replacement, but people will have to vote for the disgraced pedophile creep if they want to vote Republican in that district.

But wait it gets better. It seems that the GOP House leadership knew about Mr Foley activities but did nothing. To try and prevent what is now happening. Coverup always equals a scandal. Who knew what and when.

So now instead of talking about how if the Dems are elected, we are all going to die, the GOP leadership is going to have to answer really embarrassing questions. Big trouble right before an election.

Thus the fate of the Nation turns on the action of a drunken horny Congressman.

Weekend Music Club

A tribute to the art of the Mixed Tape.

Semisonic's Singing in My Sleep.



The more literal-named Mixed Tape from Jack's Mannequin.



Explore the art of the mixed tape here.

Corruption Watch

Master of Corruption Jack Abramoff had 485 contacts with the White House.

Most fun detail:

"please put Karl Rove in his usual table."

Sometimes...

...You are just screwed.

Jacob Weisberg takes a look at the possible alternatives for action in Iraq and ask why no candidacy are advocating for any of them.

He comes to the obvious answer:

Reviewing these proposed strategies suggests another, less partisan reason why House and Senate candidates seem so disengaged from the question of what to do in Iraq. The situation is hopeless. The best that our leading foreign-policy minds have been able to come up with is a grim choice among forms of failure and defeat. In a country of optimists, no politician wants to deliver that message.

No kidding. We are screwed in Iraq. There is no happy ending. We are now down to a choice between bad options. We need to find the least worse course. Most of Washington hasn't come to terms with that yet. My guess is that after the election, once the pressure is off, there is going to be a huge move for withdrawal from both parties in Congress. Of course the Bush administration will be against it, and they will be all that matters. Till January of 2009.

Update: Bob Woodward:

President Bush is absolutely certain that he has the U.S. and Iraq on the right course, says Woodward. So certain is the president on this matter, Woodward says, that when Mr. Bush had key Republicans to the White House to discuss Iraq, he told them, "I will not withdraw, even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me."

Screwed.

Just Go Read

Excellent post over at Lawyers, Guns and Money on lessons learned from Moneyball (A's Clinched!) that apply to politics:

Beane, as Lewis explains, was particularly well-positioned to see through the fallacies of received wisdom because he himself was a handsome, picture-perfect athlete who looked like a model major league player--and hence was drafted in the first round--but couldn't actually play major league baseball. This is why, when a scout criticized a player's body, he said that "we're not selling jeans here." Physical attributes are only relevant to the extent that they produce results. Tony Gywnn and John Kruk were terrific players; Deion Sanders was a terrible player, and Michael Jordan couldn't hit AA pitching. That's Beane's crucial insight, and it's applicable to far more serious pursuits.
...
Yes, pesonality heuristics matter to voters (although one would hope that intellectuals would transcend rather than reinforce them), but they're inherently unstable, and voters can be smarter than they're often presumed to be.

But even worse is when empty suits selected to embody images rather than because of their ability is that they might actually win. If the Bush administration--which has been almost as disastrous from a principled conservative perspective as from a progressive one--teaches us anything, it's that competence actually, you know, matters.

Go read it all.

Change.

Election Day draws near and everyone has to get their shots in.

But you have to change up your attacks to fit the situation.

GOPer Peter Roskam hit his Congressional race rival Tammy Duckworth with the classic "She wants to cut and run from Iraq."

Problem: Tammy Duckworth is an Iraq vet and LOST BOTH HER LEGS WHILE FIGHTING IN IRAQ.

This is what happens when you try and use the same tired line everywhere you go.

Of all the things I've lost, I miss my rights the most.

Kevin Drum makes the incredible point that Congress is kicking HABEUS CORPUS to the curb:

The plan is to redefine "unlawful enemy combatant" from someone who is

engaged in hostilities against the United States

to someone who is

engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States

"Supported" is a pretty far-reaching term that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with actual combat. And while this vagueness would be disturbing enough by itself, it's even worse than it seems because other provisions of the legislation prohibit someone accused of "supporting" hostilities from challenging their detention in U.S. courts — even if the detainee is a U.S. citizen.

Keep in mind that under this system, once you are declared an "enemy combatant" you lose every single right that the US Constitution grants you. No fair trial, no right to face your accusers or even to know what crimes you are being charged with. You can be tortured into a confession and then have that confession used against you.


This is not the United States.

Monday Roundup

Bush dismisses bloodshed in Iraq as ‘just a comma.’ I'm pretty sure Iraq is going to be most of Bush's entry in the history books.

Talking points wants the rest of that NIE.

Bill Clinton slaps the guy from Fox News around.

Go watch kids get their Jesus freak on in Jesus Camp:

Their movie follows three Missouri kids who speak in tongues, pray for judges to outlaw abortion and lay hands on a cardboard cutout of President Bush.

California liberals spreading to the rest of the West:

The trend is so pronounced that demographer William Frey says Arizona and Nevada "are essentially now becoming appendages of California." Nevada stands out in particular, with 18% of its residents (as of the 2000 census) having been born in California

Hi Sis.

Old Friends

A large portion of the Craigorian Chant community wasted a lot of time two years ago poring over poll results at Electoral-Vote.com. Well its back, and this time with all the red hot Senate race action you could want.

Right now they have the Dems picking up five seats, which would leave the Senate in a 50-50 tie.

I would think seriously about voting this November. It just might matter.

Iraq is Increasing the Terror Threat

Don't take my word for it.

That's the conclution of a classified National Intelligence Estimate. To wit:

The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,’’ it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.

An opening section of the report, “Indicators of the Spread of the Global Jihadist Movement,” cites the Iraq war as a reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology.

The report “says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” said one American intelligence official.

Puts that whole "Central Front in the War on Terror" in a new light, doesn't it?

Half a Loaf of Torture

So despite some intial headlines on the WH reaching a deal on the torture bill it seem the "deal" is a bunch of crap. TPM:

The senate won't formally reinterpret the Geneva Convention or explicitly sanction the president's torture policies. But they'll allow him to keep using them.

That's the compromise.

Some things you can cut a deal on and some things you can't. I want to spend 10 billion on Education you want to spend 5. 7.5 is the deal we are going to do.

But if one side wants torture and the other side doesn't the deal can't be the United States tortures people three day a week and every other Thursday. Either we throw away our basic values or we don't.

Overlooked

Well, once again the McArthur Foundation has overlooked me for one of its genuis grants. But you can check out the winners here.

Next year will be my year.

The Forever War

Not leaving Iraq. Ever.

Strait Skinny

OK this Michelle Cottle piece brings up a real problem: the freaky skinny of today's fashion models.

Turns out the City of Madrid (that's in Spain) is actually setting requirements for weight, lest the poor girls disappear entirely. Cottle dismisses this action as silly, while acknowledging that the modern fashion model is just some eyeliner away from those starving third world orphans.

Which brings me to the most important point about fashion models. They aren't sexy.

People don't get this. These models get held up as paragons of attractiveness, when they are nothing of the sort. They were never meant to be attractive. They are chosen by fashion designers (who are mostly women and gay men) to be human wire hangers for clothes. They have no breasts and no ass, nothing that might distract from the clothes they are wearing. They aren't sexy. Sunken eyes are not sexy. They work for people who don't find women attractive. That's the real shame here. Women are killing themselves to be like women who are not attractive.

If you want to see what's actually sexy, check out NFL Cheerleaders. Fit, athletic, clear curves. No one's in danger of falling over dead from malnutrition.

I Play Chicken with the Train

Good stuff on the continuing game of chicken between the US and Iran from Fred Kaplan:

I have no idea who Duffy's sources are, but there are at least two possibilities: The Bush administration really is gearing up for war, and some dissenting officers want to sound the alarm and rouse opposition. Or the administration wants to make the Iranians think an attack is brewing in order to pressure them into a diplomatic solution.

another possibility is that the administrations just wants to give some cover to the drive to war. I'm feeling pessimistic enough to think that they just want war and the rest of it is noise. More Kaplan:

There is a danger to playing this game. Once you switch on a plan to mobilize for war, it's hard to switch it off or, at the very least, it's easy to let it keep flowing.

This is the real problem. Bush can deploy the military forces to attack Iran while saying that the actual order to attack hasn't been given, diplomacy still has a chance, etc. But once those forces are out there it becomes a matter of national and even dumber, personal pride. We don't want to back down. The same thing happened in Iraq. Once we had 100,000 on the Iraq border, all the pro-war voices began how we couldn't just leave them there and we couldn't back down, we would look week and wimpy. Everone just assumes the war was coming and gave up asking if it was a good idea, if it was justified. It wasn't a good idea or justified.

So the goal for the war-mongers is get the forces in the field and the rest just falls into place.

Lawyering

There is much discussion of the Geneva conventions this weekend. Basically, it amounts to the Bush administration trying to not be bound by the Geneva conventions.

The Bush administration treats the Geneva convention the same way Enron treated accounting rules. Not as rules to be followed but "guidelines" to be worked around.

This is what's behind the effort to more strictly define torture. If the definition is strictly defined it can then be evaded. Right now the Geneva Convention forbids "humiliating and degrading treatment" which is kind of vague and stops a lot of what the Bush administration wants to do.

Thus we have the National Security advisor on TV with: "I'm saying that nobody knows what humiliating treatment is. What does it mean?"

We know what it means. It's just right now they can't evade that requirement. They are trying to evade the requirements of the Geneva conventions so they can torture people.

U2, Football and NOLA

All in one easy link.

And/Or

Why do warning labels include the possibility of injury and/or death? Both equipment at my gym and a vending machine that just ate my buck both warned of the possibility. (Rocking or tipping this machine may cause injury and/or death, you're not getting your dollar back sucker!) But how can it be and/or death? Shouldn't it just be or death? I mean, if the vending machine kills me, does it really matter if it also injures me? I mean if it turns out that "if used incorrectly" that weight machine will crush my head and stub my toe, will anyone even notice the "injury?"

We Always Hurt the Ones We Don't Mind

Moderate Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island survived a primary challenge last night from a conservative. If the conservative won, the seat would have been an easy pick-up for the Dems. Even with Chafee, Rhode Island is one of the bluest states in the Union and even a Liberalist guy like Chafee will be hard pressed.

The irony is that if you drew up a list of GOP Senators that I want beaten Chafee would rank dead last. He voted against the Iraq War and against Bush's tax cuts. He just played a major role in blocking John Bolton. I would much rather send Trent "I wish segregation was still around" Lott or Ted "The internet is a series of tubes" Stevens packing, but they hail from Mississippi and Alaska, which are very conservative States. In order to gain control of Senate, we need to knock off Chafee. Simple. So sorry Lincoln, even though I really don't mind you too much, you got to go.

Impossible Dream

Doolittle in dead heat with Charlie Brown.

Primary

Every State does their primary on different days, so political junkies such as myself can get a little taste over the year before the big show in November. Today is the last of the interesting primaries. Political Wire has a good preview. The most important race is Rhode Island Senate where the most liberal GOP Senator left in the Nation is in a real fight with a conservative challenger. If the conservative wins, expect the seat to go Democratic in November.

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Year. No, Quote of this Presidency:

"By using September 11 to aggregate power for himself, and to make his opponents -- you, me, and every other liberal who needed to feel like we could trust our leaders after we were attacked -- feel disloyal to their country, he prevented us from healing."

Spencer Ackerman, TNR

Stone Cold

Let's also take the time today to note that not only have we not gotten Bin Laden, we are not even a little bit close:

The clandestine U.S. commandos whose job is to capture or kill Osama bin Laden have not received a credible lead in more than two years. Nothing from the vast U.S. intelligence world -- no tips from informants, no snippets from electronic intercepts, no points on any satellite image -- has led them anywhere near the al-Qaeda leader, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.

Happy Anniversary

Today of course is notable because in 1875, the first comic strip was published in a newspaper.

Oh yeah that happened too.

Can't Stop the Lies

Some lies are easier to kill than others. For example, when you are ten and say that you have cleaned your room and your Mom tries to go in but the door is blocked by the massive pile of trash, that's an easy lie to kill.

The lies about Saddam Hussein and 9/11 are proving much harder to kill.

So on Friday the Senate Intel committee released a 300 plus page report that concludes that Iraq had no pre-war ties to Al Qaeda.

On Sunday both the Vice President and the Secretary of State went on the talk show and claimed that Saddam Hussein had ties to Al Qaeda.

Let's be clear. They telling lies. Just like you lied to Mom about cleaning your room. Mom didn't let you get away with it. Why do our National leaders?

Quotable

One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror.

George W. Bush, from Martini Republic.

Nerd Fantasy

Sexy. Female. Stormtroopers. You heard me.

Pro-Torture

I'm not sure if anybody noticed, but yesterday the President of the United States just gave a speech defending torture, and lied a whole bunch in order to do so.

Link of the Day

Today's link comes from Erin of Denmark

The TSA's allowed and forbidden list for items on a plane.

The TSA will not allow toothpaste on a plane, but will allow KY jelly or other "personal lubricants). 4oz, to be exact. Because 5 oz would be too dangerous.

Gel-filled bras are also allowed. Why? Cause better cleavage has been shown to have a calming effect on people, especially when your toothpast has just been taken.

Yes!

Kathrine Harris won her primary last night.

She been running so bad a campaign that there was some doubt if she could do it.

So we have her to kick around for a few more months, till she gets crushed in November.

Payback baby, payback.

Clip Blogging

All the the Office clips you could want right here. I just put up the links that the Erins send me. Thanks kids.

While we are doing clips, Battlestar Galactica is running a series of Webisodes, online video shorts, in advance of the new season. Just a tast of things to come.

Desperation

As efforts continue to try and defend the complete disaster that is Iraq, the comparisons are getting more and more extreme.

The fight in Iraq is the fight against the Nazis. You don't like Nazis, do you?

Now the fight in Iraq is the fight against slavery. You don't like slavery, do you?

Next up, withdrawal from Iraq is just like eating a puppy. You don't eat puppies, do you?

Well Now

I have not seen so much as an one entire episode of The Office. But the following scene is just so pitch-perfect. I'm tempted to find out about the whole season of television that came before it.

Your Moment of Zen

Target has a line of Presidential Action Figures.

Nixon comes in his double V-for-Victory pose.

That is all.

CA Horserace

Schwarzenegger has a significant but not overwhelming six point lead over Angelides in the latest governor race poll.

Dianne Feinstein is beating Richard Mountjoy so badly in the Senate race, I'm only including it because the mention of Dick Mountjoy in this post will bring in porn-seeking google searches.

But the Schwarzenegger lead is real. He's gotten that lead the old fashion way: by completely abandoning the conservatism that got him in so much trouble last year and embracing liberalism with both hands.

His latest move is to completely screw big business and sign a major piece of anti-greenhouse gas legislation. I really wonder if Grey Davis would have done this. My guess is the race will stay pretty close all fall and as long as it does, look for all kinds of moderate liberal stuff from the Governator. It's how you win in CA politics.