Valerie Wilson in the Floodlights

By Kate Phillips / New York Times

No matter where opinion might land on the CIA leak case and the fate of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the spectacle of Valerie Wilson testifying this morning at a Congressional hearing offered new insights into the disclosure of her identity 3-1/2 years ago and the ramifications of a newly empowered Democratic majority on Capitol Hill.

Mrs. Wilson, who had never testified before despite long being at the center of the leak controversy, outlined for the congressional panel a timeline of how her husband’s trip to Niger came to pass, what she contended were distortions or falsehoods about her involvement in his trip that were contained in ensuing Senate intelligence reports and her own anguish at losing a job that she loved.

The hearing, held by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, capped a week of revelations on another battlefront for the White House – in the firings of the United States attorneys. In both story plots, some common themes and names emerged as central players, including that of top White House adviser Karl Rove.

Jump to it here ...

This administration has long thought it could act with impunity - that they could do anything, or destroy anyone for their own personal or political gain. Fortunately, we still have democratic institutions. Now that "one party government" has been overthrown and the lights are being turned on once again we start to see the corruption.

DeLay and Abramoff were only the tip of the ice berg. They were so obviously corrupt, without sense of shame or subtlety that they got caught when their party was in power! But now, ALL the chickens are coming home to roost.

I can't tell you how pleased and proud I am that the Republicans have finally restored honor and dignity to politics!

Democrats: Restoring Accountability One Bill At A Time

By: SilentPatriot on Saturday, March 17th, 2007 at 5:03 AM - PDT
(Guest blogged by Logan Murphy)

The Democrats are proving they can multitask with the best of them. While our attention has been drawn toward countless scandals, hearings and investigations, Congress has been hard at work restoring accountability and transparency to our government.

Check on the Progress Here ...

Quote of the day

"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing." is generally attributed to Rove. referenced to "The Daily Texan" of 19 March 2001; unconfirmed.

Interesting that one can have "to much education". Equally interesting is how it might be tied into voting propensities. Does it perhaps mean that you don't have to be an illiterate, ill informed drop out from the educational system to be a Right-wing Republican ... but it helps.

I wonder if there's some correlation, inverse or otherwise, between amount of education and distance to the right? Do you find yourself moving further to the left with more education?

No wonder "No Child Left Behind" is structured and underfunded the way it is!!

Nine newspapers drop Coulter in the wake of CPAC remarks

As of March 13, nine newspapers have dropped right-wing pundit Ann Coulter's column after remarks Coulter made at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where she referred to Democratic presidential candidate and former Sen. John Edwards (NC) as a "faggot." On March 8, Media Matters for America published a list of daily newspapers that carried Coulter's column at the time she made her controversial remarks -- as well as the email addresses of the editors of those papers -- and suggested that readers contact the editors to discuss their papers' decisions to carry Coulter's column.

More ...

I wonder if all those Coulter Republicans who cheered, stomped their feet and whistled their approval at the CPAC meeting are taking note. The ship has left the dock. The pendulum has swung. Divisiveness and hate-language from the Right is not kool anymore.

Where ever do they get these ideas?

Greeting Bush in Brazil

I wonder if it has anything to do with the destruction of the balance of powers laid out in the constitution, the strengthening of the powers of the president at the expense of the people or the blitzkrieg optional war that wasn't needed?

Go figger! Dumb friggin' ferriners, anyway. They don't know their left from their right. (But then, when you get to the extremes, it's hard to tell the difference between a Hitler and a Stalin, anyway.)

Why I Won’t Vote for Hillary or McCain

The office of President of the United States is an important position and it should be held by a person who actively wants the responsibilities of the office. However, there are those who want the office too much!

Both Hillary Clinton and John McCain fall into the category of wanting the office too much. They want to be President of the United States so badly that they have sacrificed their principles in their quest to gain the office. The problem is, we cannot allow someone without principles to hold the office. Bush is a prime example of what happens when someone without principles gains the office. That’s why you can’t get a straight answer out of Hillary and why John is starting to look as two-faced as a used car salesman.

Hillary tap dances over whether or not it was a mistake to go to war. She avoids the question when asked if it’s immoral to be gay. She triangulates and polls and calculates her answers to just about everything. In short she’s trying to figure out how to tell the people what she thinks they want to hear.

McCain is no better – though his approach is different. He was a maverick until the 2004 election, riding what he called the “Straight Talk Express”. Bush smeared him badly but all I can remember was McCain pathetically hugging Bush at the podium sometime after the election. It was a sickening picture. Now, McCain who was against religious zealotry is courting religious wackos. McCain, who was for gay rights is now against gay rights. McCain, who knew about torture first hand, votes to allow torture. That doesn't sound much like straight talk to me. In some circles he's picked up the nick name "Pander Bear" ... and the humor in it comes from the truth in it.

Where are their principles? What do they stand for. It would appear they want to stand for anything that will get them elected and that, in my book, is a good reason to vote for just about anyone else. They appear to have ethics like rubber bands ... or, as Nixon would have it, "situational ethics" ... and we all know where that got us.

Jesus Wept

Jesus-Loving Americans Totally Ignorant of Jesus, Religion
Re-posted from Wonkette

A shocking new book proves Americans are simultaneously the most “religious” and the most religiously ignorant people in the developed world. Overwhelming majorities of Our Fellow Citizens don’t know anything about the Bible, the teachings of Jesus or even the 10 Commandments they want posted everywhere. (Could Christians want those ancient laws displayed at every government building so they can learn one or two?)



We’ve got a shameful list of things Americans don’t know about their beloved religion, after the jump.

Jump, I say ... Jump!

We live in the land of biblical idiots

Who knew!?!? Call Ripley!!!

Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know -- and Doesn't
by Stephen Prothero

from Amazon.com

Prothero (American Jesus), chair of the religion department at Boston University, begins this valuable primer by noting that religious illiteracy is rampant in the United States, where most Americans, even Christians, cannot name even one of the four Gospels. Such ignorance is perilous because religion "is the most volatile constituent of culture" and, unfortunately, often "one of the greatest forces for evil" in the world, he writes.

Prothero does more than diagnose the problem; he traces its surprising historic roots ("in one of the great ironies of…history, it was the nation's most fervent people of faith who steered Americans down the road to religious illiteracy") and prescribes concrete solutions that address religious education while preserving First Amendment boundaries about religion in the public square. Prothero also offers a dictionary of religious literacy and a quiz for readers to test their knowledge. This book is a must-read not only for educators, clergy and government officials, but for all adults in a culture where, as Prothero puts it, "faith without understanding is the standard" and "religious ignorance is bliss."

At The Amerind

Red Chair

It's All About Sacrifice

Somebody, Help Me

Would somebody please, please explain what that logo or banner is behind Hillary.

Could it be this is the Hillary Clinton Fuck You 2007 Tour?


Hillary in Hew Hampshire

Biden: A Taste of Reality

Is Bush's God an Idiot?

by Bill Cusack
Re-posted from HuffPo

Before deciding to invade Iraq, Bush, apparently, or so he says, talked it over with God, and God, says Bush, told him to invade, or at least made it abundantly clear that he supported an invasion of Iraq very, very, very strongly, presumably because God hates Middle Eastern dictators with lots of oil as opposed to lots of other dictators without lots of oil.

God knew there were no WMD's because God is all powerful and can see all or he ain't God. Apparently God didn't tell Bush he would create terrorists and unleash ethnic hatred which would drag us into a death spiral quagmire, either. So the bottom line is God told Bush to invade Iraq, which is the most tragic blunder in U.S. history since the decision to legalize slavery- a blunder that has humiliated this country and will imperil the security and economic interests of America for the rest of this century. Is God an idiot?

Get it all here ...

Introducing the iRack

The Plan has arrived!

As Bill Maher put it ...

Mr. President, this job can't be fun for you any more. There's no more money to spend--you used up all of that. You can't start another war because you used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people.

Listen to your Mom. The cupboard's bare, the credit cards maxed out.

No one's speaking to you. Mission accomplished.

Now it's time to do what you've always done best: lose interest and walk away. Like you did with your military service and the oil company and the baseball team. It's time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or space man?

Now I know what you're saying: there's so many other things that you as President could involve yourself in. Please don't. I know, I know. There's a lot left to do. There's a war with Venezuela. Eliminating the sales tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the church and Social Security to Fannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote.

But, Sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you govern like Billy Joel drives. You've performed so poorly I'm surprised that you haven't given yourself a medal.

You're a catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire city to rising water and snakes.

On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans. Maybe you're just not lucky. I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side.

So, yes, God does speak to you. What he is saying is: 'Take a hint.

Fire all the lawyers!

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales abruptly canceled travel plans Tuesday amid growing calls for his ouster over the firings of eight federal prosecutors during a White House-directed housecleaning of U.S. attorneys.

Let me see if I got this straight. Subvert the Constitution? OK, we'll get over it. Torture? We'll set that aside. But fire a couple of lawyers, mister, and you're in deep du-du!

It's absolutely wonderful when people have their priorities straight!

White House implicated in firings

Political gain trumps justice everything ... at least with some people.

FOX NEWS, Crazy Right Wing Propaganda

For anyone who actually thinks Faux News is real news, this is worth a look ...

In my opinion, if you get your news from Faux, you haven't got a clue what's going on. Further, if you get all of your news from the Main Stream Media ... you're pretty much in the dark.

Shootout at Picacho Peak

The 2007 Re-enactment of the Battle of Picacho Peak, the Western most battle of the Civil War


Mount Up

Arizona's Civil War story is a colorful one. Colonel John R. Baylor of the Confederate States of America defeated Union troops in Arizona and New Mexico in March 1861.

Arizona became a Confederate Territory when it was annexed by President Jefferson Davis. Baylor was later named governor in January 1862. He set up a territorial government for the Confederacy with its own constitution.

It was not until General Carelton and the California Volunteers recaptured Tucson in June 1862 and drove out Confederate forces that Arizona was again under Union control.

Arizona became a territory under the Union flag February 26 1863. The Battle of Picacho Peak, "the westernmost conflict of the Civil War", was fought on April 15, 1862. It took place between Tucson and Phoenix near Picacho Peak.

General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Virginia at Appomattox Court house on April 9, 1865, three years later, effectively ending the American Civil War.


'Til Johnny Comes Marching Home Again


In the Study of War


Under the Stars and Bars


The Thin Blue Line


Southern Sharp Shooter


Battery C


In the Aftermath

My goal when taking photographs of re-enactors is to make the images look as true to the spirit of their re-enactment as possible.

You Tell 'im, Nancy!!

Nancy Pelosi Responds To Bush’s Threatened Veto Of Military Funding Bill

President Bush's Iraq policies weaken our military's readiness, dishonor our nation's promises to our veterans, and fail to hold the Iraqi government accountable for overdue reforms.

By threatening to veto the House's military funding bill, the President is walking away from his promise to the American people. The President has vowed to veto a bill that contains his own reform benchmarks for performance by the Iraqi government, our Defense Department's own standards for troop readiness, and America's promise to our veterans.

With his veto threat, the President offers only an open-ended commitment to a war without end that dangerously ignores the repeated warnings of military leaders, including the commander in Iraq, General Petraeus, who declared in Baghdad this week that the conflict cannot be resolved militarily.

~ Nancy Pelosi

You tell 'im, Nancy.