Not having Air America on any stations here in Texas (and not holding my breath waiting for it to arrive), I usually sample O'Reilly and Rush during my lunch hour.  I figure it's as good a way as any to find out the right-wing talking points for today.

I usually find it amazing that they're often not only both talking about the same things, they're frequently using close to the exact same words.  Today, both O'Reilly and Rush's stand-in (not sure who) were discussing with alarm the record gas prices that have befallen our fair God-fearing nation.

I suppose it goes without saying that they both see this as a reason - nay, a mandate - to drill for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.  Not only that, but they both took special pains to mention that environmental concerns were silly; after all, the Alaska oil pipeline has actually helped the caribou population!

I had the opportunity to view the film last night, and I'd like to share my reactions.

I had the occasion to strike up a political conversation with a cop this afternoon, and knowing that he's a Republican, I thought I'd try to bring him around to a more progressive point of view.

Hey, Rick, bet you didn't know that you were one of Dean's "strongest supporters:"

Reading Howard Dean's supporters' reactions online today suggests to me that there was an increasing amount of pent-up skepticism toward Dean even among his strongest supporters that is now in the process of being vented. To wit: Rick Robinson in the DailyKos.com Diaries has one take that's worth reading on how Dean's internet movement turned out to be vaporware.

Nice work, Garance.

As a bigger point, I'd like to take this opportunity to denounce the practice of cherry-picking blog comments to make a point.  It's perhaps the laziest form of research imaginable, since you can use comments to prove anything.

If TAPPED actually had comments, they'd probably find that out rather quickly.

My faith is shaken.  Process is very important to me, and the process broke down tonight in circumstances that should have been ideal for Dean campaign.  There's no way around it.

I'm talking about all the promise of the Dean campaign.  New voters.  An energized electorate.  Rebuilding the party.

Via Rolling Stone, it turns out that Bono wanted to perform during the Super Bowl halftime show with Jennifer Lopez to raise generate support for AIDS relief in Africa.  MTV, like any good corporate entity, was happy to go along since it suited their interests also, but the NFL put the kibosh on it.  Why?

Can we please stop all these comparisons between Bush and Hitler?

Look, I think a lot of Bush's policies are reprehensible. Some I would even consider dangerous.  And there's no doubt that Ashcroft values his personal agenda over the laws of the land.  But the idea that this administration is anything like the Nazi regime in any but the most superficial ways is absurd, and it appeals to the worst of us as the opposition party.

Josh Marshall has another one of his bizarre attacks on Howard Dean today.  Like his "dirty tricks" post from a few months back, he wraps one of Dean's statements in so much spin and delirium that it's hard to know where to begin.

I'm really surprised that there isn't a new bat up yet to close out the quarter.  I'm sure we all remember the $5 million bats from the last ten days of Q3, and I was expecting the same thing this quarter.

However, nothing yet.  Is this the best sign yet of a massive fundraising quarter?  Or does the campaign simply want to avoid the bats over the holidays?

Far be it from me to defile Daily KOS with an item from The Corner ... but when they're right, they're right.  In this entry, Rod Dreher mentions that he's seen many Dean bumper stickers in Dallas, but none for any other candidate.

And he's right.  I live in Dallas myself; I'd like to think that one of the stickers he's seen is mine.  And like him, I've seen nary a Gephardt or Lieberman sticker (although I do know a Gep supporter), and I can't even imagine a Kerry sticker on a vehicle around here.  

Dean has visited Texas at least three times, staging rallies in San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston, and he'll be back here for a fundraiser next week.  He's even run a few ads in Austin from what I understand.  I wouldn't be surprised to see Clark stop by sometime soon, but as near as I can tell, the rest of the candidates have been treating Texas as a lost cause.

Maybe there's good reason for that, but Dean detractors have to understand how much that means to people like me. I've been to several Dean meetups, and I went to the Grassroots Summit last weekend, so I can say with confidence that he has people here who are working for him.

Now it would be easy to dismiss that by saying, "Oh, but it's just Texas.  It's not in play."  But that kind of proves my point.  Even in freakin' Texas Dean already has an infrastructure.  If his national campaign is paying off here, it's probably paying off in a lot of other places, too.

As we all know, the Bush administration loves to release bad news on Fridays.  The idea, of course, is that not many people read the paper on Saturdays, so the impact is blunted.  My question is, given that today must surely be one of the slowest news days of the year, what God-awful thing are we going to hear about today?

If you're like me, you assume that the likes of Rush Limbaugh don't operate with any kind of philosophical grounding other than "Smear Thy Enemy".  So, I have to admit, it's been a bit puzzling to me that Rush and his cabal of right-wing revolutionaries have been so hard on the Medicare bill over the last few days.  

Fire away....

Not that it matters what with their late primary, but a poll by Research 2000 in New Jersey shows Dean with a lead in that state, with all the Dem contenders within the MOE against Bush (via Blog for America):

This is something I've been thinking about for a few days.

Dean has been getting hit lately from both Republicans and Democrats alike with McGovern comparisons the past few months.  The two parties have different reasons for this comparison, though.  The GOP finds it convenient, playing off of McGovern's supposed hippie peacenik stances to make Dean seem weak.  Dems simply use McGovern as an example of overwhelming defeat, as it seems more a product of internal party struggles than any kind of ideological gap.

I'm not sure how many of you good folks read Jack O'Toole's bog, but check it out today.  He's holding a 24-hour Blogathon to raise money for the American Cancer Society, to close out National Breast Cancer Awareness month.  He does a lot of good work, so go check it out and help out if you can.