I know it's already on the rec list. Sometimes, you just wish you could recommend more than once. This is one of those times.

That said, I proudly draw your attention to gwhayduke's diary "Bush States Treasury May Default.

For the first time in ages, I feel like we've reached a critical mass in our opposition to this president. With the Schiavo mess, the daily revelations of new DeLay fuckups and now this, I think we're at the point where one good push could put these fuckers on their heels.

By "this," I mean the revelation that Bush is now so desperate over the state of his Social Security push, that he's hinting that the Treasury may default on the bonds which secure the SS Trust Fund.

To anyone who's followed the saga of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, today's news will come as no surprise.

From the dKOSOPEDIA "Kossary"...

After a long period of wondering whether or not our earnest outrage at the onslaught of Republican evildoing had utterly robbed us of our capacity for snark, I find myself compiling a list of today's posts that makes The Onion read like a mouthful of sand.

How these folks haven't self-destructed yet is beyond me, but here goes...

Dear Jonah:

Excusing yourself from combat in Iraq on the grounds that your daughter and your salary are too precious - as if such thoughts had never occurred to the thousands of reservists now serving there - is the mark of a true chicken hawk. Not that being a right-wing, civilian pundit is a crime, mind you. Society depends on having one part of its citizenry prepared for armed combat, with the other part trained in the combat of language and ideas. Members of this sector wage their wars with facts and logic and erudition. Colonels develop operational plans, pundits debate issues. Such is the way of society and it is, in its own way, just.

I just heard California Senator Dianne Feinstein, a woman who allegedly represents me, a California Democrat, use the most ridiculous logic I've ever heard on the Senate floor:

 

Hmmm...

So, the fact that every intelligent person on Earth should be disagreeing with this President is irrelevant. Somehow, the notion that a President should surround himself with an array of rubber stamps is perfectly valid, as long as they're "competent" rubber stamps.

Please be seated.

At this time, I would like to direct your attention to the most grave and gathering threat now facing the United States of America:

SOCIAL SECURITY.

In a surprising display of maturity yesterday, President George Bush announced that actions have consequences.

 

In my new capacity as spokesman of the White House, I hereby declare the following:

The liberation of Iraq is unfolding precisely as President Bush, peace be upon him, has forseen. Stockpiles of Weapons of Mass Destruction have been confiscated. I have seen them personally. The coalition is growing stronger. Even as we speak, dozens of nations are contacting President Bush, peace be upon Him, offering support for this noble and just effort.

And there is no insurgency. The coming nationwide elections will destroy the insurgency. Because it does not exist, as I have said.

The American soldiers will roast the stomachs in Hell of the insurgency which, as I have many times said, does not exist.

Thank you.

On December 10th of last year, Armstrong Williams was invited to discuss the many problems in Iraq with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. When asked how he might explain the shortage of body armor, Williams responded:

Each of us, every last soul, has spent the past six weeks praying for the big idea -- the monumental "light bulb" revelation -- that would deliver us all from the evil of future Republican victories. We've absorbed the concept of "framing" like a field of sponges. We're watching the Ohio recount every minute of every day. We're buying blue and boycotting Sinclair.

We're "working hard," to borrow our President's phrase.

But are we working smart?

Just got home from work and had to relate what I learned today.

I'm currently working with a man (a highly active Democrat) who happens to be good friends with a well-known Democratic Senator.

Shortly after noon pacific time, he called her office, desperate for information, and was told that Democratic internals looked like this:

In between firing off emails to SCLM pundits alerting them to a missed story and signing myself up to make GOTV calls in Ohio, I decided to pause just long enough to stare in awe at the vast beauty of our effort here on dKos.

In doing so, it occurred to me that this is precisely what a democracy ought to look like: unique individuals, kicking and screaming and uniting behind causes that matter. The founding fathers are smiling down on us from Heaven.

When Kerry has won incontestably and we're sipping margaritas and have had about a week of rest, it might be time for us to ruminate about the future direction and/or targets of our efforts here at dKos.

For me, though, a break long enough to marvel at the amount of good we're doing here has sufficed perfectly. This is what I'll be doing over the next few days.

General Wesley Clark, appearing on tonight's Real Time with Bill Maher, told a story about his meeting with Pentagon generals 10 days after 9/11.

It goes something like this...

"One of the generals called me in and said, 'I got a joke for you.' And I said, 'Please, you guys don't have time for jokes.' And he said, 'Oh no, you gotta hear this one.'

(Big laugh from the audience)

'9/11 equals Saddam,' he said. 'Doesn't matter if he did it or not, we're going to get him.' And this was ten days after September 11th."

Earth shattering? No. But it does show that the Iraq plan had already filtered out of the NSC meetings we read about in the first Woodward book and into the ranks of the Pentagon brass who were, I must infer, already at work on the Iraq plan.

How many times were we told that Bush had no Iraq plan in the works after September 11th?

I was asked to enter a diary based on a post I'd made here.

The original post addressed the outrageous fact that, in a prewar planning session, a Pentagon briefer reached the point in his PowerPoint presentation which dealt with Phase IV (post-war operations) and switched to a slide which read, simply:

TO BE PROVIDED...

In the ensuing discussion, it seemed to me that the most fundamental constitutional tragedy regarding the war in Iraq was going unnoticed for the umpteenth time.

So I will try and explain it below.

Have been posting for about a month now and have hit a few roadblocks. Help from veteran Kossacks would be greatly appreciated.

How do I:

1.   Attach items to a post (mostly jpegs)?
   
2.   See how people are rating posts, particularly mine?

Thanks in advance, guys.

A friend of mine, a Democrat, remarked to me that his wife had received her California Voter Info Guide, but he hadn't. So I offered to look into it.

It turns out that some California elections official had changed his registration status to INACTIVE, dropping him off the rolls. I was not able to get a satisfactory answer as to why, only vague mention of my friend's failure to respond to something they'd sent him in November of last year.

The CA deadline is October 18th. There are many other states whose deadlines are upcoming. PLEASE verify that you, too, have not been deactivated for reasons unknown. Don't assume -- ESPECIALLY IF YOU LIVE IN A SWING STATE -- simply because you've voted before from your current address that your status is still active. VERIFY it over the phone.