All of us with IQ's north of our chronological age realize that the Bush/Cheney Mob has been wrong time after time. Not just a mis-step here and an error there, but a string of stupidity stretching from here to Baghdad and back. But consider this:

They're batting 1.000. We're the mistaken ones. And I know this because Alex Trebek came to me in a dream and told me so. He stood at the foot of my bed, shook his head sadly, and said three times, "Make sure your answer is in the form of a question."

I will reveal the correct question, after the jump.....

There are three members of the Page Board, a congressional body that oversees the page program in the House of Representatives. John Shimkus (R-IL19) is the chair; the other members are Shelley Moore Capito(R-WV02) and Dale Kildee (D-MI05).  It's well established that Mr. Kildee was not informed about potential sexual predation by Mark Foley(R-FL16).  Now Capito says she was not informed by Shimkus or anyone else.  More after the jump.

We all know that Congressional and Senatorial staffers check in on DailyKos from time to time to take the pulse of the netroots.  I propose that we give them and their public-servant bosses a little something to chew on.

We need to make it clear that we are willing to sit out the '06 congressional election over this issue.  A democracy that conducts torture as a matter of public policy is not one that deserves our participation.  

I'm not asking you to do anything as labor intensive as calling your Representative or your Senator.  I'm not asking you to take up a sign or a banner, nor to send a letter or a postcard.  I'm just asking you to take the pledge, right here, right now, in this thread, just like I'm going to do right after the jump...

Crime-fighter, ladies' man, astronaut, West Virginian.  Beloved comic actor Don Knotts took the final curtain Friday night, succumbing to pulmonary and respiratory complications at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, Callifornia. Knotts was best known for his portayal of the bumbling Deputy Barney Fife in the iconic "Andy Griffith Show" of the 1960's.

His character of Barney Fife was, perhaps, the most fully realized character in situation comedy.  A bumbling, bungling incompetent with delusions of grandeur, we had not seen his like until the selection of George W. Bush as Resident of the United States in 2000.  Unlike Bush, however, Fife was surrounded by a competent, caring, compassionate cadre who prevented his incapacity from resulting in dire consequences, such as arresting an FBI agent, insulting Aunt Bea, embarassing the local choir, or embarking on an elective invasion and occupation in the Middle East and becoming bogged down in the quagmire of religious civil war.

Knotts was 81.

Dear Senator Byrd:

Today, on the day we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I watched with pride and wonder as another American visionary called upon America to live up to its ideals.  I am referring to your former colleague, Vice President Al Gore.

More after the flip

During the run-up to the confirmation hearings on Justice Roberts, there was considerable debate as to whether he should be filibustered.  Many of the firebrands wanted to storm the battlements and take a do-or-die stand on Roberts.

I, myself, was of the "keep-our-powder-dry" contingent.  Trading Rehnquist for Roberts cost us little, if anything.  And given the fact that the folks who pull Chimpy's strings wre going to nominate a conservative in any event, trading a Rehnquist for a proto-Rehnquist was, IMHO, no big deal.

So, we have all this dry powder.  What do we do with it?

More below the fold....

This will be a short but sweet diary, inspired by arguably the greatest American woman of the Twentieth Century, Ms. Rosa Parks.  Sister Rosa was not merely a tired woman who lacked the energy to ride standing up;  she appreciated full well the significance of her civil disobedience.  She was already active in the NAACP at the time of her arrest in 1955.  Further, her entire life was devoted to the struggle for equality.  In 1965, she joined the staff of Congressman John Conyers, whose contributions to this blog are always received with respect and appreciation.  In that spirit, I make this observation and request.  In 1955, the fare on the Montgomery, Alabama bus system was ten cents.  Recently, the U.S. Mint has issued quarters in honor of each state, and nickels commemmorating the Louisiana Purchase.

Why not a Rosa Parks Dime?  Lots of folks who read this blog have lots of connections to folks in a position to get this ball rolling. LTE's, calls to your congresspeople and senators, talk show campaigns.  Let's make a little history.  

We're all savvy enough to understand that a Republican president is going to nominate Republicans to high office, including the Supreme Court.  "Cronyism!" cried the maddened thousands, and the echo answered "Cronyism!"  Wake up and smell the coffee, folks.  When you are at the level of POTUS/SCOTUS, they're all cronies!

If President Hilary Clinton nominates fellow NY Dem Mario Cuomo to the Supreme Court, will it be an excellent choice of an intellectual giant with the perfect judicial temperament, or will he be an inexperienced crony?  JFK appointed his kid brother to be Attorney General of the United States, fer chrissakes.

So let's not kid ourselves that Chimpy was going to reach deep into the criminal defense bar and nominate an unknown lefty public defender such as myself.  He picked someone he knew and trusted.  So far, no surprise.  He picked someone with a background in high-dollar corporate law.  Still no surprise.  He picked someone from among his close personal circle of trusted associates.

OK, that's a surprise, and I'll tell you why.....

Is it time yet?  Is it official?  Abramoff's employees charged with murder....Delay on the brink of indictment, with Rove, Libby and who knows who else not far behind....Frist's little insider trading problem....hundreds dead, thanks (in part) to the "fine job" done by Chimpy's resume-inflating appointee....Chimpy's guitar recital, Cheney's mansion shopping, Condaleeza's Imelda Marcos impression in the aftermath of Katrina....no bid contracts for hurricane recovery to Cheney's cronies at Halliburton and to Carnival Cruise Lines, known for parking their profits in Panama, beyond the reach of the IRS...and oh, by the way, these are just SEPTEMBER'S scandals.

Can we all agree to refer to the Chimpocracy as "the scandal-plagued Bush Administration" whenever we have occasion to mention them?

According to C-SPAN's website, they will be covering the Washington, DC anti-war protest live at 11:30 EDT this morning.

I was planning on attending until my truck blew a brake line on my way home from work yesterday. (Rats!)  Many had expressed concern that Rita coverage would suck all the oxygen out of the media this weekend, leaving no coverage for the march and rally.  We may lose a little exposure via CNN and MSNBC, but those of us who want to be there in spirit can watch from afar.

BTW, where's the live blogging we were all hoping for?  Is there a techical problem? Can some web wizard meet up with MSOC at the Ellipse Visitor Center and address any technical issues they may be having?

Consider this scenario.

Al-Qaeda terrorists detonate a suitcase nuke in New Orleans.  The explosion breaches a major levee and wipes out the pumps, causing Lake Ponchartrain to flow into the bowl of the city with no way to remove the water. Between the flooding and the radioactivity, it becomes necessary to evacuate NOLA and a significant portion of the Gulf Coast.

OK, Mr. Homeland Security Preznit.  What's your plan for "Homeland Security"?

Assuming it didn't include cake eating, guitar playing and a couple more days of vacation, howzabout you implement it now?  What's that?  This is it?  This is all you got?  More.....

A perfect storm is about to form, as three major elements relevant to our consumer culture are about to converge.

The convergence of these three elements will pose both a challenge and an opportunity, if we have sufficient will to take advantage of it.

The elements of this perfect storm are these:

1.)  Record high prices for heating fuel and natural gas.

2.)  Changes in bankruptcy and credit card debt rules.

3.)  That annual orgy of unnecessary consumer spending known as Christmas.

More after the fold...

This won't be a terribly long diary, but I'm hoping to get viral with the notion that while the Chimp-in-chief is "getting on with his life", yung Americans are being mowed down left and right in Iraq. Poor planning, inadequate armor, insufficient troop strength to occupy a hostile nation....all of these are contributing factors.

I call on the progressive blog community to banner the running total of troops at the top of your respective blogs.  Hundreds of thousands of folks access these blogs daily, and each one should be reminded each time that while Bush sleeps, a mother weeps.

The vacation death toll stands at 59.  Hold this administration accountable.

That's just one of the delightful sentiments expressed on the lovely new Spring collection of t-shirts available to the style-conscious fascist conservative shopper.  Now I hear you asking yourself.....who would peddle such loathesome trash to the in-bred and the brain-dead?  Surely your local mall wouldn't carry sportswear extolling the virtues of the U.S. Marine who coldly killed a wounded man in an Iraqi mosque, right?  So where do these abhorrent people obtain such hideous tees, sweats and baby-dolls?

They get them on the margins of this very blog.....from the classified ad of Metrospy.  In fact, the front page copy contains this little gem:

"We don't have a problem with gays. They should have all the same rights as heterosexual men. They should be allowed to marry the woman of their choice."

This isn't about the First Amendment....that only applies to government action.  This is about choosing one's business partners, and I've gotta say......I'm a little disappointed with this particular choice.

I'm sure many of us have been terribly frustrated at the brazen political opportunism of Tom DeLay, and the useful stoogeism of Reid and Harkin, et al.

What can we do?  Call, e-mail, wire your Dem senators/reps and demand a stem cell research rider be attached to the Schiavo legislation.

Turn their hypocrisy back on them.

I know this is probably too short for a diary, but time is tight, and this seems like it might be an effective counter-measure.

According to CNN.com, the bright light of reason seems to have landed on the Chimp-in-Chief.  Details after the break.

There are so many various shorthand acronyms for the media floating around (SCLM, SCUM, MLM, etc.) that disussions of news coverage begin to resemble a bowl of Alpha-Bits.

I hereby propose the perfect acronym....the one, true, shorthand descriptor of the news media that "gets it."

Behold....the Conservative Corporate Contolled Press or, as i like to think of it, the CCCP.

Not only does it accurately describe how they are, who's in charge and what they do, but it has the additional advantage of evoking the golden age of propaganda, misinformation, totalitarianism and the Cult of Personality.

After all, can you watch Faux News without thinking of TASS or PRAVDA?

Who's with me on this?

Dear Jeff:

It's been a hell of a week, hasn't it?  I suspect your bosses told you this was a foolproof deal, but now you know better.

I'm not your lawyer, Jeff, but if I was, I'd give you some damn good advice, and if you were as smart as you seem to be, you'd take it.

Your future is on the line here, Jeff.  I don't mean your future with Talon "News", or your future with GOPUSA, or your future with your various male escort services.  I'm talking about what the rest of your life is going to be like, depending on the choices you make in the next few weeks......