You have got to check out these TV ads from Colorado AGAINST THE MINIMUM WAGE.

http://www.stop42colorado.org/...

This truly takes fear mongering to an art.  I mean once you are threatened by the VOICE OF GOD and a SORE ASS, what could possibly be left?  

Ironically enough, they want people to vote AGAINST raising the minimum wage which would help the poor people that God wrote a whole book about called THE BIBLE.   And I would argue that raising the minimum wage could actually save your butt, especially if you are poor and can't afford soft toilet paper.

I hope God takes vengeance against the nitwits who funded these ads for making a mockery of God and doing the opposite of his will.  And I think that the makers of Charmine should sue their asses off for potentially depressing sales by implying that their soft toilet paper could spontaneously turn into a metal cheese grater.  What do you think?

WHO:         The Al Franken Show, Air America Radio
WHEN:       Tuesday, April 25, 2006, 11am to 2pm, book signing to follow
WHERE:     Graham Chapel at Washington University, St Louis, MO

Call THE NEW TALK St Louis radio station at 314-962-0590 to ask for tickets

Biblical pandemic

The problem: a shortage of flu vaccine. The solution: Kansas.

Flu vaccines, as we know, are redesigned every year to fight mutated strains. "Why must they redesign those vaccines?" asks Kansas. "Flu viruses can't evolve. Evolution is just a theory." Kansas would be happy with last year's left-over vaccines. Kansas would be happy with a vaccine for the 1918 influenza epidemic. It's the same as the virus that Noah took with him on the Ark, isn't it?

If Kansas and other creationist states would take creationist vaccines, there would be plenty of real vaccines for the rest of us. By "real" vaccines, I mean vaccines designed by biologists who believe in evolution, just as real bridges are designed by engineers who believe in gravity.

Stephen Brown
O'Fallon, Ill.

With all the discussion about the Plame outing, I can't believe that news junkies and political talking heads are not reviving this story to compliment the Plame story.

Why isn't there an investigation on this agent's outing and colosal breach of national security by the Bush Administration?

If you didn't participate in the previous poll, you still can by clicking on my previous diary entry.  Thanks.

http://www.commonsensemom.com/bumpersticker-PrideFest.html

I take criticism well so I if I made a typo or a horrible error, please tell me.

Thanks,

Common Sense Mom

Then today, after a nice Sunday sleep in, I opened my Post-Dispatch editorial page to find an EVEN MORE INFURIATING editorial chastising Howard Dean yet again.  

See it here: http://tinyurl.com/abmn2

ENOUGH ALREADY!  The media needs to stop making news decisions based on the GOP spin machine and Democratic leaders need to get a backbone and STAND UP FOR THE CHAIRMAN OF THEIR PARTY!

First let me say that I appreciate and honor your leadership and service to America.

But I am disappointed by your remarks criticizing recent quotes from Howard Dean. I understand that Dean's rhetoric is often controversial, but why not give him the benefit of the doubt?  He is the Chairman of your party, after all, doing the thankless job of rebuilding the Democrats state by state after years of Washington rule that led you to amazing defeat.

Maybe Dean was taken out of context or miss quoted all together?  Why not say, that Dean "does not speak for you, but until you see an entire transcript of his comments, you will not speak ill of another Democrat." Or maybe you could say that "you would not have made those remarks, but Dean is entitled to his opinion."

This is rather interesting - The Ten Books That Scare Conservatives The Most.  A right-wing weekly asked conservative scholars to name the "Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries"

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7591

Keep in mind that the "summaries" of each book have a conservative bias and agenda to push.  Among the books listed are The Kinsey Report and The Feminine Mystique which suggests that at least these conservatives feel pretty threatened by sexuality and women who are not "barefoot and pregnant."  Wow, how insecure can you get?  

The following is a must read by Molly Ivins.  The Link is here - http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/columnists/molly_ivins/11743246.htm

Published on Thu, May. 26, 2005   
'Today is one of the all-time low points'
By Molly Ivins
Creators Syndicate

AUSTIN - Rarely are the words of one state legislator worth national attention, but when Senfronia Thompson, a black representative from Houston, stalks to the back mike with a certain "get-out-of-my-way" look in her eye, it's Katie, bar the door.

Here is Thompson speaking against the Legislature's recent folly of sending a superfluous anti-gay-marriage amendment for the Texas Constitution out to the voters:

"I have been a member of this august body for three decades, and today is one of the all-time low points. We are going in the wrong direction, in the direction of hate and fear and discrimination. Members, we all know what this is about; this is the politics of divisiveness at its worst, a wedge issue that is meant to divide.

I DID THE MATH.  With population numbers from the 2000 Census and a calculator, I confirmed my suspicion that the majority Republican Party in the Senate represents fewer Americans than minority Democratic Senators.  The 55 Republicans Senators represent states with a population of 112,858,577 residents or 49%, while the 45 Democratic and Independent Senators represent States with a total of 117,657,044 residents or 51% of the population. I divided population numbers equally in states with divided party representation. (Yes, I included the District of Columbia with Democrats even though they are technically not represented.  Without DC the numbers only change by a tenth of a percent, but more importantly, since DC votes nearly 90% Democratic, their views are clearly represented by Democratic Senators.)

I just got a call early this morning from Rep Clay's office very upset about the misunderstanding and wanting to know where I got my information because Rep Clay voted AGAINST THE ESTATE TAX REPEAL and is voting AGAINST THE BANKRUPTCY BILL TODAY.

I read the Kos blog here last night about all the Dems who sold out to the Republicans and was shocked to see Rep Clay on the Gov website as officially voting for the repeal.  I called his office late last night to leave a message of my outrage and was about to send out an action alert in Missouri to protest his vote when his staff called to inform me of the error.

If you want to call Rep Clay's office to THANK HIM FOR HIS VOTE here is his info:

Saint Louis Office
Phone: (314) 367-1970

Saint Louis County Office
Phone: (314) 890-0349

DC Office  
Phone: (202) 225-2406

Watch a video of the ad they are planning to run:
http://www.iranfreedomfoundation.org/default.php?page_id=69
(I couldn't get it to go past the first few minutes, but that is enough to give me nightmares.)

Here is the transcript and link to streaming video:
http://www.iranfreedomfoundation.org/default.php?page_id=140

I admit that I didn't watch all of it because I didn't want to lie awake all night in a cold sweat.  Can anyone tell me what this is all about?  AM I OVER REACTING?

Why is Bush calling the government bonds in the Social Security Trust fund IOUs, as if they were scraps of paper in a shoe box?  Why is Bush "implying" that our government may default on the treasury bonds that will pay future Social Security? Those "IOUs" Bush loves to talk about, are the ones HE WROTE, with our credit, when he created the deficit to finance an unnecessary war and tax cuts for the rich. Is Bush saying that the IOUs he wrote are no good?

Conservatives want people to be confused, insecure and afraid, because there is one thing this President knows how to exploit and that is FEAR.  Remember what happened when Bush "implied" that Iraq had a nuclear bomb? It doesn't matter that Iraq never had WMD of any kind; Bush still got his war.

SOCIAL SECURITY: Does the president even know how the system works? By DEAN BAKER
http://tinyurl.com/3n2h2
____
Dear Mr. Baker,
Thank you for making excellent points about Bush's apparent lack of understanding of what "full faith and credit" in government bonds actually means for Social Security.  But, I think that in arguing the details you are missing the true Bush strategy.  The more confused the President is, the more confused the public is, which creates exactly what conservatives want - insecurity and fear. And if there is one thing this President knows how to exploit, it is FEAR.

What I heard last night was pretty scary.  This whole Schiavo thing may have backfired not only with the general public, but with the religious zealots that it was meant to pander to.  They are all raging mad at George and Jeb because they are not swooping in with the National Guard, a la Elian Gonzalas, and whisking the tragic Terri Schiavo living corpse into protective custody.  I mean they are really PISSED OFF and claiming that both Bushes played a cruel hoax on them by claiming to be saving Terri's life when they were really just allowing another court to decide she had the 'right to die.' THEY ARE VOWING REVENGE.

http://www.eande.tv/main/?date=021705

This is a few weeks old, but the link above is a great web video of Robert Kennedy Jr sticking it to the media on environmental issues and not allowing the interviewer get away with spinning the question. This is an excellent example of re-framing conventional media assumptions to a progressive perspective in one of the most effective arguments I have seen in a long time.  If we can get Democrats to argue like RFK on all issues, we will win.

God, I love it when people speak truth to power.

Wendy Foster Dickson
www.CommonSenseMom.com