This week, Thom Hartmann had the slimy Frank Gaffney on his local show here in Portland. Gaffney is one of the primary promoters of the term "Islamofascism," part of Bush's efforts to suggest that his nasty little war is the equivalent of World War II. (By the way, which is it, Bush - is this a new kind of war, unlike any other, or is this exactly like the biggest war that has ever been fought?} But Gaffney is perhaps applying the inflammatory term to the wrong party.

OK, this is a brief diary, but I doubt my comment in the last Open Thread is going to be read by anyone.  On Hardball now, Little Ricky is bombing under some tough, though occasionally confused, questioning by Tweety.

The Supreme Court of Oregon announced a 5-1 decision today in two cases that would have decreased our freedom of expression in this state, which, I believe, has the most expansive right of expression in the United States.

One ordinance that was ruled unconstitutional prohibited sexual touching in a city's strip clubs; the other would have required that strippers stay four feet away from their customers.

Now some Kossians might be bored, annoyed or even outraged by this decision, but it's actually a great day for freedom of expression in America.  Why below the fold.

Yes, stories about Eve Ensler's controversial play, "The Vagina Monologues" can be almost as tiresome as the play itself, but when they involve freedom of expression they can be important.

In the enlightened community of Winona, Minn., two schoolgirls and 100 of their classmates are being threatened with expulsion because the girls expressed their love for their vaginas.

More below the, er, fold.

Friday's Oregonian and tonight's KATU newscasts report the latest results from Tim Hibbitt's poll on the presidential race and ballot measures in Oregon.

Great news:  Kerry leads Bush 49 percent to 43, with 8 percent undecided.  Less great news on the ballot measures below the fold.

Contest!  Future Vice President John Edwards is going to host a showing of Dr. Strangelove on Turner Classic Movies this Thursday.  In a promo, he says he was struck with the thought that this (nuclear war started by Boykin type) could actually  happen.  I suppose that in fairness TCM has offered equal time to Cheney.  Now, what would be a good film for Cheney to host?   Some suggestions below the fold.

In a peculiar mix of unremarkable but real insight and blinkered doltishness in today's New York Times, Frank Rich uses James Carville and Paul Begala's occasional advising role in the Kerry campaign to conclude that CNN is "now as inextricably bound to the Democrats as Fox is to the Republicans." And while making this ludicrous charge, he pens not a word about Wolf Blitzer's all-but-paid position with the Dear Leader crowd (or, for that matter, Joe Scarborough's role in the Bush campaign over at MSNBC).

Secretary of State Bill Bradbury just announced that Ralph Nader failed to make Oregon's ballot for the general election.  I know the rule about no one-sentence diaries, but I wanted to get the news out.  I'll update the diary soon.

Source:Northwest Cable News Channel

[Update] Oregon Public Broadcasting confirms that the effort to get Nader on the ballot by petition has failed, but the numbers are not yet available. Naderites were confident their 18,000 signatures would be enough to meet the 15,300+ requirement, but there were many instances of chicanery, duplicate signatures and other problems. Will post link to the AP story when AP posts its damned story!

OK, that's a little sensationalistic, but it's the word on the street in Portland. I didn't spread it when I first heard it, but now that its posted on blueoregon (www.blueoregon.com), I think it's OK to share it. Isn't that how the SCLM work these days? More below the fold.

If you didn't see G-Dub's performance on Larry King, and if you haven't read the play by play in the diary below, you might want to catch the whole thing on one of its repeats later. It was one of those performances that permits (barely) his partisans to claim he did well and that permits those of us who are more objective to wonder again at the embarrassment the fact that this man is president of our beloved country causes.

Also, check out the CNN bite showing his response to the fact that he sat immobilized and Homer Simpsoned in that classroom. See his eyes batting like that? When he realizes he's in REALLY deep shit, he does that a lot. It's as revealing as the tape of the classroom itself. (And it makes him look as though he's doing a poor imitation of some disgusting '30s movie version of a gay man.}

Yes, Stewart will have a field day with this, but I hope other news organizations will show this clip as well. The American people deserve to see it. Oh, the content of his answer was lame, too. He all but admitted the obvious. Yeah, I was frozen with fear, but judge me on what I did after I finally got my heart started again.

And -- poor Laura.

Looking beyond the election with increasing confidence, I am beginning to think about what actions President Kerry will take during his first week(s) in office.  I know he has already made a statement or two about what he will do, but I'm thinking not only of official executive orders but other actions to begin to return the government to the American people.

He of course has to focus like a laser beam on the messes in Iraq and the economy, but what about some smaller signals that the government is going to operate for us rather than against us?  As an Oregonian, I would like to see him call the DOJ off our Death with Dignity law and begin to reverse Bush's assault on the nation's forests.  What are your ideas for early Kerry initiatives, including ones that will not require legislation?