After reading Jeff Lieber's scathing clue-by-four delivered to McCain's bestest Googler, I wondered why right-wing morons continued to cling to the idea that bloggers are basement-dwelling Cheetoh-eaters.

Perhaps that's all they know; you have to wonder if that's part of their job description when they advertise for blog jockeys to contract.  Can't you picture it? "Must be living at home in the basement of their married parents; those with parents of one-man-one-woman need only apply."

Which sets me to wondering, especially after seeing and meeting so many of you at last year's YearlyKos and this year's Netroots Nation conventions: where do you eat your Cheetohs, fellow blogger?  What disqualifies you for the right-wing blog monkey job description?

I'll get flamed for this, TR'd, whatever.

But the fundamental problem with our country is that for decades we have come to believe that democracy is something that requires only that we vote.

Some of us don't even do that.

But this country was founded by people who knew they did so upon threat of death; the signatories of the Declaration of Independence knew it was their death warrant were they to be caught by British troops, hanged until dead, their families equally at risk for the flourish of their quill pen upon parchment.

Thankfully, they did not run away.  They stood their tenuous, embattled ground.

It's not much of a diary, sorry, but I wanted to point out that  Karl's yapping about the Democratic candidates to YAF (Young Americans for Freedom) RIGHT NOW on C-SPAN.
Link here for live feed (sorry, using Windows Media player).

He's going aggressively after Obama -- which means he's already convinced that Clinton is not the nominee.

(Don't get me started on the audience to whom he's speaking -- young brownshirts, all of them.)

Before noon today, I am going to pull on my boots and mittens, wade through five inches of sloppy snow, scrape the half-inch of now-frozen sleet off my windshield, thaw out my vehicle and head for the polls.

And after brandishing my Republican-dictated identification, I will wield my black pen and firmly fill in the blank space next to UNCOMMITTED at the bottom of the ballot, underneath the names of Democratic candidates who remain on the form.

You want a mitten for Mitt?  Buy your own.  Mine are going to be busy.    Love you, Orange Overlord and myriad minions...but seriously, butt the hell out of my state's primary and get your own to screw up just as certain so-called leaders in Michigan's Democratic Party did to ours.  Here's why I refuse to cross the aisle and vote for that hair gel abuser with an appropriate four-letter nickname -- oh, and here's why I refuse to vote for the candidate allegedly leading in our state's polls.

I know that a big chunk of the best and brightest of the progressive blogosphere are right now having a night cap at YearlyKos, but not all of the best and brightest are here.

Jeepers, SNAP OUT OF IT!  Life goes on outside YearlyKos!  Bush signed an Executive Order today declaring a nat*onal emerg*ncy -- and nobody's covering it at Daily Kos.  Yeah, I'm worried enough that I'm not using all the vowels here.  Apparently today's EO freezes the assets of those persons or parties who are acting against the sovereign elected government of Lebanon (read: Syria).

But the extra fillip is the declaration of a state of national em*rgency because of perceived threats to our national security.  What???

Yeah, me too, I wanted to become something more than an angry American, nauseated every day by what I read and saw at work in government.  I'd recently started blogging, but it wasn't enough.  I needed results, something more than yelling into the void every day over a hot keyboard.  As days went by I felt more and more isolated, alone, freakish, and horribly frustrated by the perception my country was sliding rapidly down a slippery, ugly slope towards something I couldn't label.

I'd read about a campaign that intrigued me, some guy out east that had a straightforward and pragmatic way of looking at matters and addressing them, a guy who actually had some chops at doing what needed to be done.  He'd balanced a budget for more than a decade, while providing healthcare to all senior citizens and children in his state – and he did not believe we had solid intelligence to go to war in Iraq.  Damn, I thought, I want some of THAT.  Where do I sign up?

Once the USDOJ dumped this last batch of documents, I went diving, intending to suss out details behind a mysterious dismissal that I've been following.

Instead I found information showing that a major Republican donor will name replacements for Carol Lam and Kevin Ryan.

WTF?

Just lovely.  Abu G. is apparently not done with his political purge of the U.S. Attorneys across the United States.

According to TPMMuckraker, Margaret Chiara will be stepping down effective March 16, 2007, one more notch in Abu G.'s belt.

Since there has been no apparent performance issue, in spite of Deputy USAG Paul McNulty's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee a couple weeks ago, what is it about Margaret Chiara that threatens this Administration?

An Open Note to Members of the Media:

I watched the evening news tonight, popping between the Big Three on broadcast television.

WHY THE F*CK ARE YOU GIVING MORE AIR TIME TO BARBARO THAN THE BIGGEST SCANDAL SINCE WATERGATE????

Of five state-wide ballot initiatives, three are likely funded and promoted by outside interests, and typically appeal to the right-wing crowd.  It's highly probable that these initiatives were designed not only to achieve a specific end outlined in the initiative, but to motivate an otherwise disillusioned, disappointed and demotivated segment of the right-wing base to get out to vote.  

What ballot initiatives in your state fit this mold?  I'm particularly interested in hearing about TN, SD, MD, MN, MO, since each of these states was targeted or hit with religious extremist push-polling that may supplement the ballot initiatives.  Where ballot initiatives may not be enought to stimulate right-wing voters, religious extremists have ramped up their rhethoric and push-polling to leave no 'winger behind.

What do you need?  Is it a job or an employee?  Is it a ride or a car?  Is it volunteer labor or a volunteer slot that needs to be filled?

Let's get down to raising the tide, make the connections, draw the lines between the dots.  And let's do it NOW, because many of us can't afford to await.  We need each other right NOW.  More on the flip.

"Lieberman Throws Howard Dean Under the Bus"

Agh!!  Deaniacs need to kick Joe's ass all across the state of Connecticut and then some.  It's one thing to launch effective criticism of the candidate you're running against, but sliming the chair of the party that you claim you still represent?

F*ck you, Joe.  You are dead to us as a Democratic Party member.  Democratic Party members respect democratic (little d) processes, and they don't get bitchy with the party they expect to help them.   [UPDATE: SEE BELOW JUMP -- LEAVE COMMENTS FOR JOE2006 NOW AVAILABLE!!]

If that hypocritical dipsh*t Brent Bozell can muster 90,000 angry parents calling the FCC about Janet Jackson's breast, we can surely muster MORE firepower to provide real protections to our children's safety.  The Republicans actually booed a mother-grandmother and fellow House member Nancy Pelosi for asking for a counted voted to support a bi-partisan investigation; Boehner actively thwarted an investigation by asking for voice vote on a different resolution that only referred the Foley matter to the House Ethics Committee (and we know what a flaming joke that Committee is).

At what point will we see Boehner's and Hastert's actions for what they are: obstruction of justice?

Let's make sure the House Republicans understand that this attitude and behavior is completely unacceptable, that they cannot continue with business as usual, putting children at risk and insulting parents' representatives who ask them to do an adequate job of oversight.  Action Items below the jump.

If that hypocritical dipsh*t Brent Bozell can muster 90,000 angry parents calling the FCC about Janet Jackson's breast, we can surely muster MORE firepower to provide real protections to our children's safety.  The Republicans actually booed mother and grandmother Nancy Pelosi for asking for a counted voted to support a bi-partisan investigation; let's make sure the House Republicans understand that this attitude and behavior is completely unacceptable, that they cannot continue with business as usual, putting children at risk and insulting parents' representatives who ask them to do an adequate job of oversight.

CALL OR FAX THE HOUSE LEADERS AND ETHICS COMMITTEE MEMBERS and ask them to establish a BI-PARTISAN investigation committee IMMEDIATELY to investigate the facts behind Rep. Tom Foley's conduct and House Leadership's response.  Nothing less will do since Republicans have already covered up this scandal.

As of 8:50 pm this evening, MediaBistro had the following poll and results up:

Poll of the Day, 09.25.06
<brWho was more inappropriate?</br>
Chris Wallace  [32% - 387 votes]

Bill Clinton   [67% - 791 votes]
Freep away, gang.  Set 'em straight, tell Faux News what you think of their shill Wallace.

What's profanity, one must ask?  Words deemed to be obscene in normal, day-to-day conversation -- but used and depicted in real life in a situational crisis?

Or the secondary promotion of a competing, bastardized piece of propaganda on another network by killing/delaying a much better and TRUE piece of cinematography?

But for some reason we are not looking more closely at the fingerprints all over the scene, at the footprints leading up to and away from the body.  We look away as the thieves pick the pockets and the bodysnatchers size up the remains -- and as the body reanimates.

Joe Lieberman is dead to us as a Democratic Party member, but we're unwilling to look at what now mobilizes this undead thing.

This may be the very thing that the Bush Administration has been seeking to obscure, what with the currently escalation in the Middle East and the publication of Novak's non-story. This is as bad and as important as the Wilsons' lawsuit; the public must hear about it.

In short, we are talking about the international condemnation of our government for violations of human rights on American soil against Americans, in manners consistent with abuses by U.S. military and intelligence forces abroad.